高级游戏设计
Advanced Game Design
系统方法
A Systems Approach
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ISBN-13：978-0-13-466760-7
ISBN-13: 978-0-13-466760-7
ISBN-10: 0-13-466760-3
ISBN-10: 0-13-466760-3
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主编
Editor-in-Chief
马克·陶布
Mark Taub
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Senior Project Editor
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内容概览
Contents at a Glance
3 Foundations of Games and Game Design
5 Working as a Systemic Game Designer
内容
Contents
A Combined Approach to Game Design
What This Book Is and Isn’t About
A Quick History of Systems Thinking
Systems as the Process of the World
3 Foundations of Games and Game Design
The Player’s Part of the Game as a System
A Systemic Approach to Interactivity
Mental Models, Arousal, and Engagement
Recognizing, Defining, and Creating “Fun”
5 Working as a Systemic Game Designer
Analyzing Games from a Systems View
6 Designing the Whole Experience
Designing the Game+Player System
Questions to Consider About Your Design Vision
More Than the Sum of the Parts
Defining a System’s Loops—And Goals
Tools for Designing Game Systems
Documenting Your System Designs
Questions to Consider About Your Game Loops
Specifying Behaviors for Parts
Don’t Get Lost in the Weeds or the Clouds
Documenting Your Detailed Design
Questions to Consider About Your Detailed Design
Using Probability in Game Balancing
Transitive and Intransitive Systems
Creating Progression and Power Curves
Balancing Parts, Progression, and Systems
致谢
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
任何一本书的写作都是一次旅程。我要感谢我所有的家人、朋友和同事，多年来，他们帮助我磨练游戏设计思想，并有时强烈地鼓励我踏上这段旅程。特别是，我要感谢 Ted Castronova 和 Jeremy Gibson Bond 的持续支持；感谢印第安纳大学游戏设计专业的学生与我一起测试这本书；最重要的是，感谢我的妻子 Jo Anna，感谢她多年来和冒险中坚定不移的爱、支持和灵感。
Any book is a journey in the writing. I would like to thank all of my family members, friends, and colleagues who have over the years helped me sharpen my thoughts on game design and who urged me, sometimes forcefully, to take this journey. In particular, I’d like to thank Ted Castronova and Jeremy Gibson Bond for their continuous support; my students in the Game Design program at Indiana University for playtesting this book with me; and most of all my wife, Jo Anna, for her unwavering love, support, and inspiration across many years and adventures.
我还要感谢 Kees Luyendijk 担任本书的插图画家和早期读者，尽管他还是研究生！我还要感谢 Laura Lewin、Chris Zahn 和 Pearson Education 的其他编辑团队，感谢他们的指导和支持，使本书得以问世，还要感谢 Daniel Cook 和 Ellen Guon Beeman 如此慷慨、体贴和敏锐的技术审阅者。如果没有这些人的辛勤工作，本书就不可能问世。
I’d also like to thank Kees Luyendijk for taking on the role of illustrator and early reader for this book, while also being a graduate student! I am grateful, too, to Laura Lewin, Chris Zahn, and the rest of the editing team at Pearson Education for their guidance and support in making this book a reality, and to Daniel Cook and Ellen Guon Beeman for being such generous, thoughtful, and incisive technical reviewers. This book could not have happened without the hard work of each of these individuals.
介绍
INTRODUCTION
“人们所能完成的最困难的任务之一，无论别人多么鄙视它，就是发明好的游戏。而那些与本能价值观脱节的人是无法做到这一点的。”
“One of the most difficult tasks people can perform, however much others may despise it, is the invention of good games. And it cannot be done by those out of touch with their instinctive values.”
——卡尔·荣格（范德波斯特 1977 年）
—Carl Jung (Van Der Post 1977)
游戏设计的综合方法
A Combined Approach to Game Design
这本书是一本不同寻常的游戏设计指南。在这本书中，你将学习深奥的理论、基于游戏设计原则的实践以及经过验证的行业实践。所有这些都是通过理解和应用系统思维来实现的。正如你所看到的，游戏设计和系统思维以令人惊讶和有益的方式相辅相成。将它们结合起来将帮助你成为一个更好的游戏设计师，并以全新的视角看待世界。
This book is an unusual guide to game design. In it you will learn deep theory, practice based on game design principles, and tested industry practice. All of these are informed by understanding and applying systems thinking. As you will see, game design and systems thinking complement each other in surprising and informative ways. Combining these together will help you become a better game designer and to see the world in illuminating new ways.
这本书的来源
Where This Book Came From
我从 1994 年起就一直从事专业游戏设计师的工作，当时我和弟弟成立了第一家公司 Archetype Interactive。在那之前，我一直把游戏设计当作一种业余爱好，因为 1972 年我第一次接触到一款关于亚述战车战争的老式六角形和计数器游戏。在我的游戏职业生涯中，我有机会领导多个开创性的项目，包括第一款 3D 大型多人在线游戏Meridian 59、模拟人生 2和Dynemotion，一款用于军事训练和游戏的先进人工智能软件包，以及许多其他大大小小的游戏。
I have been working as a professional game designer since 1994, when my brother and I formed our first company, Archetype Interactive. Long before that, I’d been designing games as a hobby, since I first ran into an old hexes-and-counters game about Assyrian chariot warfare in 1972. In my career in games, I’ve had the opportunity to lead multiple ground-breaking projects, including Meridian 59, the first 3D massively multiplayer online game, The Sims 2, and Dynemotion, an advanced artificial intelligence package for use in military training and games, as well as many other games, large and small.
这段时间，无论是在学校还是后来担任软件工程师、用户界面设计师，再到游戏设计师，我都对系统、涌现和超越旧有的线性、集中控制模式的想法着迷。在我看来，游戏的独特之处在于它能够让我们创造系统并与之互动，让我们真正了解系统是什么以及它们是如何运作的。如果世界上真的有魔法，那它就存在于系统如何运作中，从原子如何形成到萤火虫如何同步闪烁，再到经济体如何在没有人指挥的情况下设定价格。
Throughout this time, while in school and then working as a software engineer, user interface designer, and then game designer, I have been fascinated by the ideas of systems, emergence, and moving beyond older models of linear, centralized control. Games seem to me to be unique in their ability to allow us to create and interact with systems, to really get to know what systems are and how they operate. If there is real magic in the world, it resides in how systems operate, from how atoms are formed to how fireflies synchronize their flashing and how economies set prices with no one to tell them what to do.
采用系统方法进行游戏设计并不容易——很难理解和表达，更不用说确定具体的设计了。但我发现这种方法对于创造活生生的世界（系统）非常有效，玩家可以沉浸其中。根据我作为游戏设计师的经验，保持孩子般的敬畏和惊奇感以及对产品制作过程的清晰实用知识至关重要。将游戏视为系统，同时看到整体和各个部分，使我能够做到这一点。学习如何在游戏设计和生活中表达和使用这种综合的惊奇感和实用性是本书的起源。
Taking a systems approach to game design isn’t easy—it’s difficult to understand and express, much less to nail down in a specific design. But I have found that this approach works extremely well for creating living worlds—systems—in which players can immerse themselves. In my experience as a game designer, it has been vital to maintain a childlike sense of awe and wonder side-by-side with a clear-eyed practical knowledge of how products get made. Viewing games as systems, seeing both the whole and the individual parts at the same time, has enabled me to do this. Learning how to articulate and use this combined sense of wonder and practicality in game design and in life is the genesis of this book.
本书内容和不内容
What This Book Is and Isn’t About
本书旨在成为高级游戏设计的教材。它可以作为大学课程的一部分，也可以单独阅读。本书以系统思维的语言为基础，对游戏设计进行了严格、广泛和深入的探讨。它旨在“深入挖掘基础”，但并不是一本轻松的入门书。如果你刚刚开始接触游戏设计，这可能是一段艰难的旅程。然而，如果你想学习系统游戏设计理论和基于这些理论的行业测试设计实践的组合，这本书适合你。
This book is intended to be a text for advanced game design. It can be used as part of a university-level course or read on its own. This book offers a rigorous, broad, and in-depth examination of game design grounded in the language of systems thinking. It is intended to be foundational in terms of “digging down to the foundations” but not in terms of being an easy, light introductory book. If you’re just getting started with game design, this may be an arduous journey. However, if you want to learn a combination of systemic game design theory and industry-tested design practices based on them, this book is for you.
更具体地说，这本书的重点不是关卡设计、谜题设计、修改现有游戏、创建动画精灵、制作对话树或类似主题。相反，它主要关注于创建所有我们非正式地称为系统的东西——战斗系统、任务系统、公会系统、交易系统、聊天系统、魔法系统等等——这些都基于对系统到底是什么以及设计系统游戏意味着什么的更深入理解。
More specifically, this isn’t a book focused on level design, puzzle design, modifying existing games, creating animated sprites, crafting dialog trees, or similar topics. Instead, it’s mainly focused on creating all those things we informally call systems—combat systems, quest systems, guild systems, trading systems, chat systems, magic systems, and so on—informed by a deeper understanding of what systems actually are and what it means to design systemic games.
为了加深理解，我们将一路探索许多其他领域，包括天文学、粒子物理学、化学、心理学、社会学、历史和经济学。这些领域乍一看似乎与学习系统和游戏设计无关（甚至会成为学习的障碍！），但事实上，善于从众多学科中借鉴是成为一名成功的游戏设计师的重要组成部分。作为一名游戏设计师，你需要学会广泛地撒网，接受教育，并在各种不同的研究领域中寻找知识和原则，以便指导和改进你的设计。
To get to that deeper understanding, we will peek into many other fields along the way, including astronomy, particle physics, chemistry, psychology, sociology, history, and economics. These may at first seem disconnected from (or even an impediment to!) learning about systems and game design, but in fact being comfortable borrowing from a multitude of disciplines is an important part of being a successful game designer. As a game designer, you will need to learn to cast a wide mental and educational net and to find knowledge and principles in widely varying fields of study that you can use to inform and improve your designs.
本书还讲述了成为一名专业游戏设计师意味着什么。通过阅读本书，您将了解游戏设计的原则和方法，还将了解在瞬息万变的行业中工作的感觉。您还将了解如何成为高效、多元化的创意团队的一员，以及设计和开发成功游戏的过程。
This book is also about what it means to be a professional game designer. By reading this book, you’ll learn the principles and methods of game design, and you’ll also learn what it’s like to work in a relentlessly dynamic industry. You’ll also learn about being part of effective, diverse creative teams and the process of designing and developing successful games.
本书的目标
Goals of This Book
阅读本书并运用其中的原则将使您更加了解系统和游戏如何相互揭示和阐释。最终目标是让您能够构建更好的游戏和更好的游戏系统，尽管这远远超出了实际的工业目标。
Reading this book and applying the principles in it will give you a greater appreciation for how systems and games reveal and illuminate each other. Ultimately, the goal is for you to be able to build better games and better game systems, though this goes far beyond a practical, industrial goal.
游戏和系统可以看作是互相照耀的灯光，也可以看作是互相帮助聚焦对方形象的镜头。因此，系统和游戏构成了整个系统的两个部分（见图I.1）。正如你所看到的，游戏和系统紧密交织在一起。用系统思维的语言来说，它们在结构上是耦合的，构成了一个更大系统的两个部分，就像马和骑手或游戏和玩家一样。“游戏+玩家”系统是你将在本书中经常看到的系统。
Games and systems can be seen as lights shining on each other or as mutual lenses, each helping to focus the image of the other. As such, systems and games form two parts of an overall system (see Figure I.1). As you will see, games and systems are intimately intertwined. In the language of systems thinking, they are structurally coupled, forming two parts of an even larger system, much as do a horse and rider or a game and player. The “game+player” system is one you will see often throughout this book.
从原理和理论方面来说，本书的目标是帮助您更好地理解系统以及系统思维的含义。这包括情境思维和了解不同元素如何相互作用以创造出全新且通常令人惊讶的东西的能力。系统思维本身是一个广泛的话题，但游戏设计为理解它提供了一个独特的视角——反之亦然。
In terms of principles and theory, the goal for this book is to help you come to a greater understanding of systems and what it means to think in systems. This includes contextual thinking and the ability to see how disparate elements interact to create something entirely new and often surprising. Systems thinking itself is a broad topic, but game design provides a unique viewpoint for understanding it—and vice versa.
从更实际的角度来说，本书的首要目标是帮助您学习如何在系统思维框架内分析现有的游戏设计，识别并找出其中隐藏的系统。您将了解游戏中的系统如何交互以及它们在特定情境下是否有效运作：它们是否为设计师想要的体验创建了框架？要回答这个问题，您需要知道如何在游戏中的不同组织层级之间移动。作为游戏设计师，您将学会看清整个游戏、组成游戏的系统以及各个部分及其关系。图 I.2显示了此图解版本。您将在整本书中看到有关此过程的更多细节，包括一般系统和游戏的具体方面。
On the more practical side, the first goal of this book is to help you learn about analyzing existing game designs within the framework of systems thinking, recognizing, and teasing out the systems hiding in plain sight within them. You will learn how systems within a game interact and whether they work effectively in context: do they create the framework for the kind of experience the designer intended? To answer this, you need to know how to move between different levels of organization in games. As a game designer, you will learn to see the entire game, the systems that make it up, and the individual parts and their relationships. Figure I.2 shows a diagrammatic version of this. You will see more detail about this process throughout the book, both in terms of systems in general and games in particular.
图 I.2游戏设计师能够在整体、循环和部分之间转换视野和焦点。学会以这种方式看待游戏和游戏设计是本书的主要目的
Figure I.2 A game designer is able to shift vision and focus between the whole, the loops, and the parts. Learning to see games and game design this way is a primary purpose of this book
除了将游戏视为系统之外，本书的下一个目标是帮助你创建自己的游戏设计，有意且明确地将你想要创造的体验联系起来了解游戏中的底层结构和流程。成为一名成功的游戏设计师需要练习将游戏创意从头脑中抽取出来，并将其塑造成其他人可以体验的现实。这通常感觉就像将一个游戏创意从模糊的阴影中拖出来，在那里它永远不需要被完全定义，而进入明亮无情的光线中，在那里它的所有具体部分和行为都必须经过彻底的分类和测试。这从来都不容易，也不是一次性的练习：对于每个游戏，作为设计师的你将在自己的交互循环中与游戏、玩家和游戏+玩家系统进行交互，以使你想要创建的游戏体验栩栩如生。图 I.3显示了此图的图形描述。您将在第 4 章“交互性和趣味性”中再次看到此图，您将在整本书中看到更多这样的系统循环图。此图和前两个图仅用几张图片就让您了解本书的基本概念。
In addition to recognizing games as systems, the next goal of this book is to help you create your own game designs that intentionally and explicitly link the experience you want to create with the underlying structures and processes in the game. Being a successful game designer involves practicing pulling ideas for games out of your head and shaping them into reality that others can experience. This often feels like dragging a game idea kicking and screaming out of the fuzzy shadows where it never has to be fully defined and into the bright, unforgiving light where all its specific parts and behaviors have to be thoroughly catalogued and tested. This is never easy, and it is not a one-time exercise: with each game, you as the designer will interact with the game, the player, and the game+player system in your own interactive loop to bring to life the game experience you want to create. A graphical depiction of this is shown in Figure I.3. You will see this diagram again in Chapter 4, “Interactivity and Fun,” and you will see many more systemic looping diagrams like this throughout the book. This figure and the preceding two figures give you the basic idea of this book in just a few pictures.
图 I.3设计师的循环，展示了设计师与玩家和游戏交互的系统，作为一个子系统。有关更多详细信息，请参阅第 4 章和第7章“创建游戏循环”
Figure I.3 The designer’s loop, showing the system of the designer interacting with the player and the game as a subsystem. See Chapters 4 and 7, “Creating Game Loops,” for more details
定义和设计游戏的很大一部分是作为开发设计并将其付诸实践的团队的一员。下一个目标是帮助您了解游戏开发过程中涉及的游戏设计的角色和流程。这些知识不是理想化的理论，而是基于数十年来在实际游戏团队中辛勤工作的经验，以及一些最近的数据驱动见解，这些见解解释了为什么某些团队和游戏会成功，而其他团队和游戏却不会成功。
A big part of defining and designing a game is working as part of a team that develops the design and brings it to life. This next goal is to help you understand the roles and processes involved in game design as part of game development. This knowledge is not idealized theory but is based on decades spent on actual game teams doing the hard work—along with some recent data-driven insights into why some teams and games are successful, while others are not.
回到第一个目标，也是最后一个目标，我写这本书的最大愿望是，你不仅能够创造有目的的、系统的游戏设计，而且你会将系统知识推广到您的日常生活中。系统无处不在，正如您将看到的，理解系统变得越来越重要。
To return to the first goal as also the last, the deepest aspiration for me in writing this book is that you will not only be equipped to create intentional, systemic game designs, but that you will generalize this knowledge of systems into your daily life. Systems are all around us, and, as you will see, understanding them is becoming increasingly important.
为了澄清这一切，本书的核心假设分为三部分：
To clarify all of this, the hypothesis at the core of this book has three parts:
游戏设计就是系统设计。游戏和游戏设计为系统思维提供了独特的视角。没有比探索游戏中的系统并设计引人入胜的游戏更有效的方法来真正内化如何用系统思考。了解系统可以让你创造更好的游戏，而创造更好的游戏可以加深你对系统的理解。它们是相互的镜头，彼此聚焦并增强对彼此的理解。
Game design is system design. Games and game design provide a unique perspective on systems thinking. There is no more effective way to truly internalize how to think in systems than to explore systems in games and to design engaging games. Understanding systems enables you to create better games, and creating better games deepens your understanding of systems. They are mutual lenses, each focusing and enhancing the comprehension of the other.
对系统游戏设计的详细掌握将取决于您的系统思维能力，而系统思维能力本身也将决定您的能力。如今的游戏设计仍然更多的是探索或临时实践，而不是既定理论。深入了解如何将游戏设计成系统并将游戏构建为系统将为您提供超越游戏的设计原则所需的基础。这些原则将帮助您创建更好、更具吸引力的游戏，并提高您对系统思维的整体理解。熟悉每一项原则将有助于您在两方面都表现出色。
A detailed grasp of systemic game design will be informed by—and will itself inform—your ability to think in systems. Game design today is still more exploration or ad hoc practice than established theory. Having a deeper knowledge of how to design and build games as systems will provide needed grounding in design principles that extend beyond games. These principles will help you create better, more engaging games and will increase your overall understanding of systems thinking. Being familiar with each will help you excel in both.
系统思维对于 21 世纪的重要性不亚于基本读写能力对于 20 世纪的重要性。在 20 世纪的最初几十年，在西方世界的许多地方，即使不懂读写，你也能过得去。随着时间的推移，人们越来越认为人们具备读写能力，以至于不识字就很难过好日常生活。
Systems thinking is as important for the 21st century as basic literacy was for the 20th century. In the early decades of the 20th century, you could get by in many parts of the Western world without knowing how to read and write. As time went on, that ability was more and more assumed, to the point that it became difficult to navigate daily life without being literate.
同样，知道如何识别、分析和创建系统是 21 世纪的一项关键技能。目前，许多人没有这种能力，但随着时间的推移，系统思维将像阅读和写作一样：它将成为一种思维方式，这种思维方式是如此自然，如此重要，以至于你甚至不会再去想它。那些继续以有限、线性、还原论的方式思考的人将被淘汰，无法有效地应对周围世界正在发生的越来越快的相互关联的变化。你需要能够将世界视为系统，并有意识地将它们用于你的游戏设计中。随着我们的世界变得越来越相互联系和互动，在你的游戏设计技能中培养这种能力将对你越来越有帮助。
In the same way, knowing how to recognize, analyze, and create systems is a crucial skill for the 21st century. Many people get by (for now) without this ability, but as time goes on, systems thinking will be like reading and writing: it will be a way of thinking that’s so natural and so central to how you navigate the world that you won’t even think about it anymore. Those who continue to think in limited, linear, reductionist terms will be left behind, unable to react effectively to the ever-more-rapid interrelated changes happening in the world around them. You need to be able to see the world as systems and to intentionally use them in your game designs as well. Building this up in your game design skill will help you more and more as our world becomes ever more interconnected and interactive.
如何阅读本书
How to Read This Book
有几种不同的方法来阅读这本书并从中有所收获。第一种是按顺序阅读各章，首先关注基础理论，然后是游戏设计原则，最后是实践要素。这样做似乎绕了很长的路，但它将提供最有效的基础来支持和情境化游戏设计的实际方面。阅读本书的第一部分理论性很强，就像为高楼挖地基：向下而不是向上可能看起来像是朝错误的方向移动方向，但这样做可以确保整个结构以后不会倒塌。同样，在将系统应用于游戏之前，首先更好地理解系统本身将有助于您以后创造更好、更成功的游戏。（然后您可以再次返回本书的系统部分，通过您学到的游戏设计知识来查看系统，看看您对系统的理解有多深。）
There are a couple different ways to read this book and gain something from it. The first is to read the chapters in order, focusing first on foundational theory, and then game design principles, and finally the practical elements. Doing this may seem like going the long way around, but it will provide the most effective grounding to support and contextualize the practical aspects of game design. Reading the first theory-heavy portion of the book is like digging the foundation for a tall building: going down instead of up may seem like moving in the wrong direction, but doing so ensures that the whole structure won’t topple over later on. In the same way, first gaining a better understanding of systems themselves before applying them to games will help you create better and more successful games later on. (You can then return to the systems portion of the book again and see how much better you understand systems by viewing them through the lens of what you have learned about game design.)
如果在阅读游戏设计书籍的实际游戏设计部分之前阅读所有这些理论对您来说似乎没有必要，您可以在书的三个不同部分中在理论、原则和实践方面之间来回切换。我建议您对系统及其工作原理有一点了解，但您可能希望阅读一些关于它们如何应用于游戏设计的章节并来回切换。希望在某个时候，您有足够的理论可以花更多时间在实践方面，而不会错过任何重要的东西。系统思维方面将有助于支持和改进您的设计工作，但毕竟，事情实际上是在实践方面完成的。
If reading all that theory before getting to the actual game design parts of a game design book seems unnecessary to you, you can bounce back and forth between theory, principles, and practical aspects in the three different parts of the book. I suggest getting a bit of grounding in systems and how they work, but you may then want to go and read some of the chapters on how they are applied in game design and go back and forth. At some point you will hopefully have enough theory to spend more time on the practical side without having missed anything significant. The systems thinking aspects will help support and improve your design efforts, but it is, after all, on the practical side that things actually get done.
快速浏览
A Quick Tour
本书分为三部分：第一部分“基础”，第二部分“原则”，第三部分“实践”。如上所述，每一部分都基于并引用了前一节中的信息。第一部分是最理论化的，研究系统、游戏和交互性。第二部分基于并应用基础元素来设计游戏中的系统和将游戏设计为系统。最后，第三部分讨论了在现实世界中实际设计、构建和测试游戏所需的条件。
This book is organized into three parts: Part I, “Foundations,” Part II, “Principles,” and Part III, “Practice.” As mentioned earlier above, each builds on and references the information in the section before it. Part I is the most theoretical, examining systems, games, and interactivity. Part II builds on and applies the foundational elements to designing systems in games and designing games as systems. Finally, Part III talks about what it takes to actually design, build, and test a game in the real world.
这三部分结构形成一个循环，第三部分实践将帮助您理解第一部分的理论。这样，本书就形成了一个系统，如图I.4所示。各部分相互影响形成循环并形成一个连贯的整体，这是本书的核心，阅读时您会越来越熟悉它。
This three-part structure forms a loop, with the third practical part informing your understanding of the theory in the first part. In this way, this book forms a system, as shown in Figure I.4. This idea of parts affecting each other to form loops and create a coherent whole is the heart of this book, and one with which you will become more familiar as you read it.
图 I.4基础、原则和实践是本书的一部分，也是游戏设计更大系统的一部分
Figure I.4 Foundations, principles, and practice are parts in this book and parts in a larger system of game design
章节概述
第 1 章“系统基础”是第一部分的开头。本章概述了看待世界的不同方式。它简要介绍了系统思维在过去几个世纪的发展历史。它还探讨了系统思维为何如此重要，并进行了一段从忒修斯之船到原子核心（再返回）的奇怪旅程，以说明系统在世界上是多么普遍，尽管也常常是不可见的。这听起来可能很抽象，但它与更深入地理解系统、游戏设计以及玩家如何以您可能意想不到的方式体验游戏直接相关。
Chapter 1, “Foundations of Systems,” is the beginning of Part I. This chapter outlines different ways of seeing the world. It includes a brief history of how systems thinking has evolved over the past few centuries. It also looks at why systems thinking is so important and takes a bit of a strange journey from Theseus’ ship down to the heart of the atom (and back) to illustrate just how pervasive, if also often invisible, systems are in the world. That may sound pretty abstract, but it relates directly to a deeper comprehension of systems, game design, and how players experience games in ways you may not expect.
第 2 章“定义系统”更详细地探讨了系统本身，提供了本书其余部分使用的结构和功能的定义。在这里，你第一次看到了所有系统都共有的部分、循环和整体的层次结构，你将在设计系统游戏时使用它。通过所有这些，你会熟悉各种各样的例子，比如眼镜蛇的问题、雪球和均衡的行为、事物之间边界的形成方式，以及难以确定且有时令人费解的涌现性质。这将引导我们探索意义以及它如何在世界上和（当然）在游戏中出现。到这个时候，你可能会开始在任何地方看到系统，并准备好从这个角度看待游戏。
Chapter 2, “Defining Systems,” dives into systems themselves in more detail, providing definitions of structures and functions that are used throughout the rest of the book. This is where you first see the hierarchical structure of parts, loops, and wholes that is common to all systems and that you will use in designing systemic games. Through all of this, you become familiar with a diverse array of examples, such as the problems with cobras, the behavior of snowballs and equilibria, how boundaries form between things, and the hard-to-pin-down and sometimes mind-bending nature of emergence. This will lead us into an exploration of meaning and how it arises in the world and (of course) in games. By this time, you will likely start seeing systems everywhere and will be ready to look at games from this point of view.
第 3 章“游戏和游戏设计基础”回答了一些基本但重要的问题，例如什么是游戏？您会发现，有时这些问题的答案并不那么明确，并且您将开始了解当前游戏设计理论的局限性。您还将更好地了解过去的游戏设计方式，以及它如何从隐性的、临时的经验设计转变为明确的、基于理论的系统设计。
Chapter 3, “Foundations of Games and Game Design,” answers some basic but important questions like What’s a game? You will see that sometimes the answers to such questions aren’t all that clear-cut, and you will begin to understand the limits of current game design theory. You will also gain a better understanding of how game design has been done in the past and how it has moved from tacit, ad hoc empirical design to explicit, theory-based, systemic design.
第 4 章“互动性和趣味性”探讨了互动性这一重要而又棘手的话题，它将为您的理论和实践游戏设计提供基础。这不仅包括不同类型的互动性，还包括玩家如何构建游戏的心理模型，以及您作为设计师如何与玩家和游戏互动。在此过程中，本章甚至探讨了定义趣味性这一棘手问题。作为一名设计师，您需要思考趣味性的含义，以及您设计游戏的原因。
Chapter 4, “Interactivity and Fun,” takes on the important and slippery topic of interactivity, which will add to both your theoretical and practical game design scaffolding. This includes not only different kinds of interactivity but how the player builds a mental model of the game and how you as the designer interact with the player and the game. In the process, this chapter even attacks the nettlesome question of defining fun. As a designer, you need to think about what fun means in terms of why you design games as you do.
第 5 章“系统游戏设计师的工作”开启了第二部分。在第一部分中，我们深入探讨了理论，本章将回归实际。您在第一部分中学到的有关系统的所有知识现在都应用于游戏设计，并在游戏中创建与系统中常见的结构相同的结构。在此过程中，您将开始发现自己作为设计师的优势，以及需要向他人寻求帮助的地方。
Chapter 5, “Working as a Systemic Game Designer,” opens Part II. Having flown far off into theoretical space in Part I, this section orbits back toward solid ground. Everything you learned about systems in Part I is now applied to game design and creating the same kinds of structures in games as are found in systems generally. As part of this, you will begin to find your strengths as a designer—and those places where you need to seek help from others.
第 6 章“设计整体体验”涵盖了系统设计的最高水平以及游戏概念的创作。这包括进行空想设计的过程以及用一句话和一份简短的文档来表达您的想法。
Chapter 6, “Designing the Whole Experience,” covers the highest levels of systemic design and the creation of your game concept. This includes the process of doing blue-sky design and capturing your ideas in a single sentence and a brief document.
第 7 章“创建游戏循环”回顾了系统循环的概念并将其应用于游戏设计。本章讨论了任何游戏中固有的各种循环——游戏的内部循环、玩家的心理循环、它们之间的交互循环以及您作为设计师从外部观察游戏+玩家系统的循环。本章还详细介绍了游戏系统中一些常见的循环类型，以及设计和记录它们的工具。
Chapter 7, “Creating Game Loops,” returns to the ideas of systemic loops and applying them to game design. about it discusses the various loops inherent in any game—the game’s internal loop, the player’s mental loop, the interactive loop between them, and your loop as the designer viewing the game+player system from the outside. This chapter also details some of the common kinds of loops in game systems, as well as tools for designing and documenting them.
第 8 章“定义游戏部件”详细介绍了创建任何游戏系统的具体细节。您必须清楚详细地了解任何游戏系统中的部件，直至它们的定义属性和行为 — 以及如何使用它们来构建第7 章中讨论的游戏循环。
Chapter 8, “Defining Game Parts,” gets down to the nuts-and-bolts of creating any game system. You have to have a clear and detailed understanding of the parts in any game system, right down to their defining attributes and behaviors—and how to use them to construct the game loops discussed in the Chapter 7.
第 9 章“游戏平衡方法”开启了第三部分。本书的最后一部分重点介绍游戏设计和构建的实用元素，这是两章中的第一章，重点介绍游戏平衡。本章介绍了不同的方法，例如基于设计师、基于玩家、分析和数学建模，这些方法都可以应用于平衡游戏中的各个部分和循环。本章还介绍了传递系统和非传递系统的概念，以及如何最有效地平衡它们。
Chapter 9, “Game Balance Methods,” opens Part III. This final section of the book focuses on practical elements of designing and building games, and this is the first of two chapters focused on game balance. This chapter covers different methods, such as designer-based, player-based, analytic, and mathematical modeling that can all be applied to balancing the parts and loops in a game. This chapter also introduces the concepts of transitive and intransitive systems, and how they are each most effectively balanced.
第 10 章“游戏平衡实践”是游戏平衡讨论的后半部分。使用第 9 章中讨论的方法，您可以学习如何平衡系统以实现有效发展和经济平衡，以及如何根据实际玩家行为平衡游戏。
Chapter 10, “Game Balance Practice,” is the second half of the game balance discussion. Using the methods discussed in Chapter 9, you learn how to balance systems for effective progression and for economic balance, as well as how to balance your game based on actual player behavior.
第 11 章“团队合作”从游戏设计本身扩展到成为成功开发团队一员的过程。有一些最佳实践，既以量化的形式展示，也以数十年经验中学到的最佳实践的形式展示，这些实践将帮助您成为一名游戏设计师。本章还概述了任何开发团队所需的不同角色，以便您能够更好地理解构成任何游戏开发系统的所有不同人为部分。
Chapter 11, “Working as a Team,” zooms out from game design itself to the process of being part of a successful development team. There are definite best practices, shown both quantitatively and as best practices learned over decades of experience, that will help you as a game designer. This chapter also outlines the different roles needed on any development team so that you can better appreciate all the different human parts that make up any game development system.
第 12 章“让你的游戏变得真实”汇集了所有基础、原则和实用要点，并增加了实际制作游戏的一些最重要的方面。要开发游戏，你必须能够有效地传达你的想法。你还必须能够快速构建原型并有效地测试游戏，以使其更接近你试图为玩家创造的体验。了解开发的这些方面以及任何完整游戏开发项目所经历的阶段将帮助你不仅谈论或设计你的游戏，而且实际上构建它并看到其他人玩它。这是任何游戏设计师的最终目标。
Chapter 12, “Making Your Game Real,” brings together all the foundations, principles, and practical points and adds some of the most important aspects of actually making a game. To develop a game, you have to be able to communicate your ideas effectively. You also have to be able to quickly build prototypes and effectively playtest the game to move it closer to the experience you are trying to create for the player. Understanding these aspects of development as well as the phases that any full game development project goes through will help you not just talk about or design your game but actually build it and see others play it. That is the ultimate goal for any game designer.
概括
Summary
本书将基础理论、系统原则和实践过程相结合，作为游戏设计的方法。通过详细了解系统的运作方式，您将在本书中学习如何应用系统思维原则来制作更好的游戏。您还将看到世界各地的系统在发挥作用，并利用您的理解在您的游戏设计中创建类似的系统。结果将提高您利用这些原则和行业测试方法来创建系统化、创造性和引人入胜的游戏的能力。
This book presents a combination of foundational theory, systematic principles, and practical process as an approach to game design. By understanding in detail how systems operate, you will learn in this book how to apply principles of systems thinking to make better games. You will also come to see systems at work throughout the world and use your understanding to create similar systems in your game designs. The result will increase your ability to make use of both these principles and industry-tested methods to create games that are systemic, creative, and engaging.
第一章
CHAPTER 1
系统基础
FOUNDATIONS OF SYSTEMS
清晰地了解系统是什么对于构建系统游戏至关重要。在本章中，我们将深入挖掘基础知识，研究看待和思考世界的不同方式，并回顾系统和系统思维的简要历史。这将使您更好地理解系统思维在一般情况下以及在游戏设计中的重要性。
Having a clear idea of what systems are is vital to building systemic games. In this chapter we dig deep for our foundations by examining different ways of seeing and thinking about the world and reviewing a quick history of systems and systems thinking. This will lead you to a better understanding of the importance of systems thinking in general as well as in game design.
最后，我们经历了一段从船到水再到原子中心的奇妙旅程，一切都是为了更清楚地了解系统、事物和游戏到底是什么。
Finally, we go on a strange journey from ships to water to the heart of the atom, all to more clearly understand what systems, things, and games actually are.
观察和思考的方式
Ways of Seeing and Thinking
我们大多数人很少思考自己的思维方式。这个过程称为元认知——思考思考——对游戏设计师来说非常重要。你需要能够思考玩家的思维方式以及你自己的思维过程。作为一名游戏设计师，你必须能够理解人们看待和思考世界的方式的习惯和局限性。虽然这本书主要不是关于感知或认知心理学的，但它确实涵盖了这些领域的一些方面。
Most of us rarely think about how we think. This is a process called metacognition—thinking about thinking—and one that is important for a game designer. You need to be able to think about how players think and about your own thought processes. As a game designer, you must be able to understand the habits and limitations related to how people see and think about the world. While this book isn’t primarily about perceptual or cognitive psychology, it does cover some aspects of those areas r.
我们将讨论几种不同的思维方式。首先，我们将研究一种跨文化测试，称为“密歇根鱼测试”，这是理查德·内斯比特博士和增田隆彦对美国和日本学生进行的研究结果（Nisbett 2003）。
There are several different ways of thinking that we will discuss. To start, we will look at a cross-cultural test known as the “Michigan Fish Test,” after work done by Dr. Richard Nesbitt and Takahiko Masuda with both American and Japanese students (Nisbett 2003).
快速浏览一下图 1.1中的图像（不超过几秒钟）。你看到了什么？将视线从图片上移开片刻，快速写下你看到的内容，或者闭上眼睛大声朗读出来。
Take a quick look—no more than a few seconds—at the image in Figure 1.1. What do you see? Look away from the picture for a moment and quickly write down what you saw or close your eyes and say it out loud.
现在回到图片并将其与你的描述进行比较。你有没有提到蜗牛或青蛙？你有没有提到三条大鱼，或者所有五条大鱼？植物和岩石怎么样？你在描述中包括了它们吗？你认为来自不同文化的人会如何不同地描述这个场景？
Now go back to the image and compare it to your description. Did you say anything about the snail or the frog? Did you say something about the three big fish, or all five of them? How about the plants and rocks; did you include those in your description? How do you think others from different cultures might describe this scene differently?
在 Nisbett 和 Masuda 的研究中，学生们观看了这张水族馆场景的图片五秒钟，并被要求描述他们所看到的场景。大多数美国学生描述了三条大鱼，而大多数日本学生描述了一个更全面的场景。然后，学生们观看了原始图片的变体。美国人很快就认出了三条大鱼（或者如果鱼变了，就会有新的鱼出现），但他们经常会错过植物、青蛙、蜗牛和小鱼。日本学生更善于注意整体场景的变化，但他们经常会错过三条最大鱼的变化。换句话说，来自不同文化的学生对同一幅图像的看法和想法确实不同。
In Nisbett and Masuda’s study, students were shown this picture of an aquarium scene for five seconds and asked to describe what they saw. Most American students described the three big fish, while most Japanese students described a more holistic scene. The students were then shown variations on the original picture. The Americans were quick to recognize the three big fish (or that new ones were in place if the fish had changed), but they often missed the plants, frog, snail, and smaller fish. The Japanese students were more adept at noticing changes in the overall scene, while they more often missed changes to the three biggest fish. In other words, students from these different cultures literally saw and thought about the same image differently.
通过这项研究和其他研究，内斯比特发现，美国人（以及那些普遍持有西方思想传统的人）倾向于简化：他们将场景简化为各个部分，而忽略了它们之间的关系。相比之下，他们发现来自东亚文化的人更有可能看到整体形象，而较少关注单个部分。
As a result of this and other studies, Nesbitt found that Americans (and those from the Western tradition of thought in general) tend to be more reductive: they reduced the scene to its individual parts, ignoring the relationships between them. By contrast, they found that those from East Asian cultures were more likely to see the aggregate image and to be less focused on the individual pieces.
密歇根鱼测试强调了这样一个事实：不同的人有不同的思维方式，我们大多数人认为“我们”的方式就是每个人的思维方式——这显然不是事实。为了能够在系统中有效地思考并将其运用到游戏设计中，我们需要了解人们思考的一些不同方式。
The Michigan Fish Test highlights the fact that different people have different ways of thinking, and most of us believe that “our” way is the way that everyone thinks—which clearly isn’t the case. To be able to think effectively in systems and to use them in game design, we need to understand some of the different ways that people think.
现象学思维
Phenomenological Thinking
几千年来，尤其是在西方传统中，人们的思维中几乎没有统一的理论。世界就是人们所经历的那样，各种独立的、往往不可预测的现象可以通过神秘主义、哲学、亚里士多德逻辑或简单的观察来解释。1即使在最后一种情况下，如果观察结果产生了任何将不同现象结合在一起的模型，那么这些模型的制定也不需要任何潜在的关系或驱动原则；事物就是它们本来的样子。
For millennia, especially in the Western tradition, people had few unifying theories in their thinking. The world was just as it was experienced, with separate, often unpredictable phenomena explained either via mysticism, philosophy, Aristotelian logic, or simple observation.1 Even in this last case, if the observations resulted in any models that combined different phenomena together, they were made without the requirement of any underlying relationship or driving principle; things simply were as they were.
一个主要的例子就是地心说，地球位于宇宙的静止中心，恒星、行星、月亮和太阳都围绕着我们旋转。这种观点至少从古巴比伦时代就已经存在，并靠观察（天空似乎确实超越了白天和黑夜）和哲学（我们当然是一切的中心！）的结合而存活下来。随着时间的推移，天文学家建立了精密的模型来解释越来越精确但有时令人困扰的观测结果，比如行星似乎在轨道上向后移动，这被称为逆行运动。我们现在知道，这种视运动的发生是因为运动更快的地球正绕过速度更慢的外行星，但如果你的模型是一切都围绕地球运行，那么这种观测结果就很难解释。
A major example of this is the geocentric view of the universe, with Earth at the stationary center and the stars, planets, Moon, and Sun all wheeling in orbit around us. This view has been around since at least the ancient Babylonians and survived on a mixture of observation (the heavens do appear to sweep past day and night) and philosophy (of course we are at the center of everything!). Over time, astronomers made elaborate models to account for increasingly precise and sometimes troublesome observations, such as when planets appear to move backward in their orbits, which is called retrograde motion. We know now that this apparent motion occurs because the faster-moving Earth is passing more slowly orbiting outer planets, but if your model is that everything orbits around the Earth, this is a very difficult observation to explain.
越来越难以解释的观测结果最终导致了更加确定性、逻辑性和系统性的思维——正如您将看到的。这里的关键点是，几千年来，在某种程度上，直到今天，人们仍然通过简单的观察和推理来观察世界：因为太阳每天都在头顶上经过，所以它一定绕着地球转；或者因为今天下雪，所以气候一定没有变暖；或者因为我们公司去年赚了钱，所以我们应该更加努力地重新应用同样的策略。作为一种观察世界的方式，这会使个人的理解有限，并且很有可能受到工作中潜在系统的影响，而且这种影响往往是巨大的。
The difficulty in accounting for increasingly problematic observations eventually led to more deterministic, logical, and eventually systemic thinking—as you will see. The key point here is that for thousands of years, and in some ways still today, people have approached the world via a mixture of simple observation and reasoning: because the Sun passes overhead each day, it must orbit the Earth; or because it’s snowing today, the climate must not be warming; or because our company made money last year, we should reapply the same strategy with more effort. As a way of viewing the world, this leaves an individual with a limited understanding and a great probability of being affected, often dramatically, by underlying systems at work.
例如，比较一下，一个人认为“哦，潮水退得很快，我可以趁此机会搜索一下露出水面的海滩”，而另一个人则理解潜在的系统原理，并知道如此迅速的退潮预示着毁灭性的海啸即将来临。或者，一个人认为“哇，抵押贷款突然变得非常容易获得；我可以趁此机会获得一笔贷款来买一栋大得多的房子”，而另一个人则能看到导致信贷紧缩和毁灭性金融危机的系统在起作用。将世界视为孤立的事件，这些事件通常彼此无关或与任何更深层次的系统无关——现象学思维——对于今天的我们来说是不够的。幸运的是，我们有更好的工具。
Compare, for example, the person who thinks, “Oh, the tide has gone far out very quickly, and I can take this opportunity to search the exposed beach” versus someone who understands the underlying systemic principles and that such a rapid retreat of the water is an indicator of a devastating incoming tsunami. Or the person who thinks, “Wow, mortgages are suddenly really easy to get; I can take this opportunity to get a loan for a much bigger house” versus someone who can see the systems at work that lead to a credit crunch and devastating financial meltdown. Seeing the world as isolated events that are generally unrelated to each other or any deeper systems—phenomenological thinking—is insufficient for us today. Fortunately, we have better tools.
还原论思维和牛顿的遗产
Reductionist Thinking and Newton’s Legacy
我们很快会探讨艾萨克·牛顿在系统思维兴起中的关键作用。现在，可以说他是从有限的观察和现象学思维转变为科学的、基于模型的、但也是还原论的世界思维的重要部分。
We will explore Isaac Newton’s key role in the rise of systems thinking shortly. For now, it’s sufficient to say that he was an important part of the change from limited observational and phenomenological thinking to scientific, model-based, but also reductionist thinking about the world.
法国哲学家勒内·笛卡尔在其 1637 年的杰作《方法论》（Descartes 1637/2001）中拥护了这一观点。他的核心思想是，宇宙及其中的一切都可以看作是巨大的机器，可以将其拆开（简化）成其组成部分，以弄清它们是如何工作的。根据这种观点，任何现象，无论多么复杂，原则上都可以看作是其各部分的总和，每个部分都为整体做出贡献，正如笛卡尔所说，“仅由轮子和砝码组成的时钟可以比我们更准确地计算小时和测量时间。”
The French philosopher René Descartes championed this view in his 1637 masterwork Discourse on Method (Descartes 1637/2001). His central idea was that the universe and everything in it could be seen as great machines that could be taken apart—reduced—to their component parts to figure out how they work. In this view, any phenomenon, no matter how complex, could in principle be seen as merely the sum of its parts, each part contributing its function to the whole, as, Descartes said, “a clock composed only of wheels and weights can number the hours and measure time more exactly than we with all our skill.”
虽然牛顿建立在笛卡尔等人倡导的可以通过还原论来发现和分析宇宙的思想的基础上，但他是第一个将笛卡尔关于宇宙是钟表机制的思想从哲学领域带入数学和科学统一观点的人。
While Newton built on these ideas of a universe that could be discovered and analyzed via reductionism as championed by Descartes and others, he was the first to bring Descartes’ idea of the universe as a clockwork mechanism out of the realm of philosophy and into a unified view in mathematics and science.
科学方法
简而言之，科学方法涉及两个主要部分：
The scientific method, briefly stated, involves two main parts:
首先，观察某件事，根据观察到的现象，对在特定条件下可能发生的情况做出假设（有根据的猜测），然后测试该假设是否正确
First, observing something, making a hypothesis (informed guess) about what might happen next under certain conditions (based on what’s underlying what’s observed), and then testing the hypothesis to see if it was correct
然后用各种观察和假设一遍又一遍地重复这一过程
Then doing this over and over with a variety of observations and hypotheses
这些假设和观察通常要求除一个条件外，其他所有条件保持不变，并确定该变化条件的影响。这是一种分析形式，将某事物分解为更简单的部分，依次检查每个部分或条件。用这种方法可以发现和理解宇宙，这是笛卡尔的核心哲学信条之一，也是科学思维与早期现象学世界观的区别所在。
These hypotheses and observations typically require holding all conditions constant except for one and determining the effect of that changing condition. This is a form of analysis, of breaking something down into simpler bits, where each part or condition is examined in turn. The idea that the universe can be discovered and understood using such a method is one of Descartes’ central philosophical tenets and is what separates scientific thinking from earlier phenomenological views of the world.
科学方法的第二部分是利用这些累积的观测数据，根据观测数据和已验证的假设，建立模型来描述宇宙（或宇宙中很小的一部分）。如果构建得当，这些模型会产生新的问题需要回答——更多的假设可以通过新的观测数据进行检验。如果模型站得住脚，它就会获得可信度；如果模型站不住脚，它就会被抛在一边。2
The second part of the scientific method is to take those accumulated observations and build models out of them to describe the universe (or some very small part of it) based on the combination of observations and verified hypotheses. If constructed well, these models create new questions to answer—more hypotheses that can be tested by new observations. If the model holds up, it gains credibility; if not, it tends to fall by the wayside.2
假设驱动的分析本质上在很大程度上是还原论的，并导致了还原论和决定论在我们当前的许多思想中得到广泛应用。按照还原论的观点，我们倾向于相信我们可以把任何看似复杂的问题分解成更简单的问题，直到解决方案显而易见。这种还原论思维的一部分是，就像机器一样，世界是确定性地运转的：发生一次的事情会再次发生。事件不是随机发生的，只要我们知道所有相关条件，我们就可以完美地预测未来。这是阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦在写给他的朋友和同事马克斯·玻恩的信中表达的观点，当时他们讨论了当时的新量子力学理论。在这些信中，爱因斯坦多次表达了确定性的观点，比如“你相信掷骰子的上帝，而我相信客观存在的世界中完整的法律和秩序”（爱因斯坦，玻恩，1971 年）。
The hypothesis-driven analysis is largely reductionist in nature and has led to the broad application of reductionism and determinism in much of our current thinking. As the reductionist view holds, we tend to believe that we can take any seemingly complex problem and break it down into simpler problems until the solution is obvious. Part of this reductionist thinking is the idea that, like machines, the world operates deterministically: what happens once will happen again. Events do not occur randomly, and if we only knew all the relevant conditions, we could predict the future perfectly. This is the view expressed by Albert Einstein in his letters to his friend and colleague Max Born, in their discussions of the then-new theory of quantum mechanics. In these letters Einstein expressed the deterministic view multiple times with comments like “You believe in the God who plays dice, and I in complete law and order in a world which objectively exists” (Einstein, Born, and Born 1971).
在这种对世界的解释中，问题的根本方面，如整个宇宙，可以简化为完全确定性和可预测的简单部分。因此，通过这种分析，我们可以找到决定问题的根本原因，并应用分析所指出的任何解决方案。这种思维方式有很多优点和好处。它使我们在生活的各个方面取得了数百年的科学进步，并且总体上提高了塑造环境、避免危险以及增加从食物和住所到全球通信和贸易的利益的能力。
In this interpretation of the world, the underlying aspects of the problem, like the universe at large, can be reduced to simpler parts that are entirely deterministic and predictable. As a result, using such analysis, we can find the root cause that determines a problem and apply whatever fix is indicated by the analysis. This kind of thinking has many advantages and benefits. It has given us centuries of scientific advances in every aspect of life and, in general, an improved ability to shape our environment, avoid dangers, and increase benefits from food and shelter to communication and trade across the planet.
事实上，这种思维方式在商业和工程领域得到广泛应用，通常效果显著。例如，在许多计算机科学课程中，学生被教导将一个复杂的问题或一组任务分解成逐渐变得不那么复杂的部分，直到他们完成了一系列易于理解和实施的任务。或者在处理材料时，工程师经常使用有限元分析，其中物体的每个部分（例如结构钢梁）被分解为离散部分（“元素”）并指定属性，然后可以对作为各部分总和的整体物体进行强度、应力等分析。当然，这些分析是近似值，但它们已被证明在从建筑物到飞机和航天器等所有物体的建造中都很有用。
In fact, this kind of thinking is used throughout the business and engineering worlds, typically to great effect. In many computer science classes, for example, students are taught to break down a complex problem or set of tasks into pieces that are progressively less complex until they arrive at a series of tasks that are easy to understand and implement. Or in working with materials, engineers often employ finite element analysis, in which each part of an object (a structural steel beam, for example) is broken down into discrete parts (“elements”) and assigned properties, and then analyses of strength, stress, and so on can be done on the overall object as the sum of the parts. Of course, these analyses are approximations, but they have proved useful in constructing everything from buildings to airplanes and spacecraft.
然而，作为一个社会，我们经常过度应用这种逻辑性、分析性和确定性思维。3我们积极寻求将情况简化为最简单、最确定性元素的解决方案，即使这意味着忽略复杂的相互作用并选择导致我们犯错的单一解决方案。例如，我们经常混淆相关性（两件事同时发生）和因果关系，即其中一个导致另一个。一种常见的说法是“由于随着冰淇淋消费的增加，溺水事件增加，所以冰淇淋一定导致溺水。”当然，这忽略了一个常见的潜在因素：天气热时人们游泳的次数更多，吃的冰淇淋也更多。冰淇淋和游泳仅仅是相关关系；一个并不会导致另一个。
However, as a society, we often overapply this kind of logical, analytical, deterministic thinking.3 We aggressively pursue solutions that reduce situations to their simplest, most deterministic elements even if that means ignoring complex interactions and choosing a single solution that leads us into error. For example, we often confuse correlation (two things happening together) with causation, the idea that one of them causes the other. One common way this is put is to say that “since drownings increase as ice cream consumption increases, ice cream must cause drownings.” Of course, this ignores a common underlying factor: people go swimming more often and eat more ice cream when it’s hot. Ice cream and swimming are merely correlated; one does not cause the other.
这种想法有很多有趣的例子（“随着海盗数量的减少，全球气温上升；因此，驱逐海盗会导致全球变暖！”），但也有一些是现实世界中的例子。例如，一项发表在著名期刊《自然》上的研究报告称，两岁以下的儿童如果开着灯睡觉，成年后会患上近视（Quinn 等人，1999 年）。然而，其他研究（Gwiazda 等人，2000 年）没有发现这样的结果，但确实发现近视与遗传密切相关（如果你的父母是近视，你很可能也会是），并且近视的父母“更有可能为孩子使用夜间照明辅助设备”（Gwiazda 等人，2000 年）。尽管 Quinn 和同事是专业且熟练的科学家，但他们似乎陷入了误区，误以为开着灯睡觉和近视之间存在相关性，认为两者是相互导致的。
There are many fun examples of this kind of thinking (“global temperatures have increased as the number of pirates has decreased; therefore, driving off pirates causes global warming!”) but some real-world ones, too. For example, a study published in the prestigious journal Nature reported that children under two years of age who slept with a light on developed myopia (nearsightedness) later in life (Quinn et al. 1999). However, other studies (Gwiazda et al. 2000) found no such result but did find that myopia is strongly genetically linked (if your parents are near-sighted, you likely will be, too) and that parents with myopia were “more likely to employ night-time lighting aids for their children” (Gwiazda et al. 2000). Despite being professional and skilled scientists, Quinn and colleagues appear to have fallen into the trap of mistaking the correlation of sleeping with a light on and nearsightedness with the idea that one causes the other.
经济学领域的一个类似例子是，过度的国家债务（超过国内生产总值 [GDP] 的 90%）会减缓经济增长，从而导致该国人民生活困难（Reinhart 和 Rogoff 2010）。然而，其他经济学家后来发现，因果关系正好相反：经济增长首先放缓，然后各国的债务负担增加（Krugman 2013）。当然，不同的经济学家会就这个问题争论多年，部分原因是他们在寻找根本原因——导致具体直接影响的条件——而在这种明确原因很少的领域。
A similar example from the realm of economics was the argument that excessive national debt (above 90% of gross domestic product [GDP]) slowed economic growth and thus led to hardship for people in that country (Reinhart and Rogoff 2010). Other economists later found, however, that the causality was reversed: growth first slowed, and then countries increased their debt load (Krugman 2013). Of course, different economists will wrangle and argue over this for years, in part because they are looking for root causes—conditions that cause specific, direct effects—in areas where such clear causes are rare.
事实上，对于许多情况来说，没有简单、合乎逻辑的解决方案，试图通过分析将复杂区域简化为更简单的元素只会产生不完整或误导性的结果。例如，丹尼特（1995）所说的“贪婪还原论”可能导致相信人体不过是一堆化学物质——主要是氧、碳和氢——根据一项分析，总价值约为 160 美元（Berry 2011）。这里似乎忽略了一些东西：这些原子的结合和相互关联方式肯定有某种影响？
In fact, for many situations, there are no simple, logical solutions, and attempting to reduce a complex area to simpler elements via analysis yields only incomplete or misleading results. For example, what Dennett (1995) called “greedy reductionism” can lead to believing that the human body is nothing but a bunch of chemicals—mostly oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen—with a total worth by one analysis of about $160 (Berry 2011). Something seems to have been missed here: surely the way those atoms all combine and relate to each other has some effect?
另一个著名的线性、还原论思维的例子是一则名为“眼镜蛇效应”的轶事。（原始来源不详，可以追溯到霍斯特·西伯特（Horst Siebert）的一本德国书 [2001]。）故事说，当印度处于英国统治之下时，毒眼镜蛇的泛滥是一个严重的问题——以至于政府愿意为进口的每个眼镜蛇头付费。这引发了一波眼镜蛇狩猎热潮，其结果是可以预见的：骚扰和咬人的眼镜蛇数量急剧下降。这无疑是英国人想要的：一个清晰的线性结果，如果你付钱让人们给你带来眼镜蛇头，他们就会这么做，瘟疫就会从这片土地上消失！但很快政府官员就注意到，虽然任何地方都没有眼镜蛇的踪迹，但他们仍然在通过付费购买眼镜蛇来做生意。显然还有其他事情发生。
Another famous example of linear, reductionist thinking is illustrated by an anecdote known as the “cobra effect.” (The original sources are obscure, leading back to a German book by Horst Siebert [2001].) The story goes that when India was under British rule, the prevalence of venomous cobras was a significant problem—so much so that the government offered to pay for each cobra head brought in. This touched off a wave of cobra hunting with predictable results: the number of cobras bothering and biting people dropped precipitously. This is what the British no doubt intended: a good clean linear result, where if you pay people to bring you cobra heads, they will do so, and the plague will be removed from the land! Except pretty soon government officials noticed that while there were no cobras in evidence anywhere, they were still doing a brisk trade in paying for them. Clearly something else was going on.
政府开始怀疑这种行为是骗人的，于是宣布不再为眼镜蛇头买单。现在回想起来，结果完全可以预料：人们发现，养殖眼镜蛇、杀死它们，然后把蛇头卖掉换钱，可以赚大钱。当政府停止支付这些费用时，农民们不再需要这些爬行动物——因此，他们将精心养殖的眼镜蛇放归野外，数量比最初多得多！
Becoming suspicious that it was somehow being had, the government announced it would no longer pay for cobra heads. The results at this point are, in retrospect at least, completely predictable: it turned out that people had figured out that they could make good money farming cobras, killing them, and then turning in the snakes’ heads for money. When the government stopped these payments, the farmers had no more need for the reptiles—and so they released many more carefully farmed cobras back into the wild than had been out there in the first place!
有许多此类意外后果的例子，当一个结果是人们所期望的，而另一个结果却发生了，而且往往比预期的要糟糕得多。不过，偶尔意外后果也是积极的。稍后我们将讨论 20 世纪 90 年代美国将少量狼放归野外所产生的深远意外影响的一个例子。
There are many such examples of unintended consequences, when one result was desired and another one, often dramatically worse, occurred. Occasionally, though, the unintended consequences are positive. Later we will discuss an example of the far-reaching unintended effects of releasing a small number of wolves into the wild in the United States in the 1990s.
为了结束关于线性、还原论、确定性思维的讨论，我们将考虑钟摆的例子（见图1.2）。一个重物固定在一根杆上，另一端固定，会以可预测的准确速度摆动。钟摆的运动非常有规律，你可以用它来展示地球在钟摆下的旋转，这是法国物理学家莱昂·傅科在 1851 年发现的。这是笛卡尔、牛顿和其他伟大思想家眼中的钟表世界的一个很好的例子。
To close out this discussion of linear, reductionist, deterministic thinking, we will consider the example of the pendulum (see Figure 1.2). A weight attached to a rod and fixed at the other end will swing with exact predictably. A pendulum is so regular in its motions that you can use one to show how the Earth rotates under it, as discovered by the French physicist Léon Foucault in 1851. This is a good example of the clockwork world seen by Descartes, Newton, and other great minds.
但是，如果你对可靠的摆锤进行简单的改动，它就会完全变成另一种东西。如果你在摆锤悬挂的杆的中间增加一个关节，并允许该关节自由移动，摆锤的路径就会突然从完全可预测变为完全不可预测。双摆的路径是混乱的：不是因为它保持在已知范围内而随机的，而是因为它对起始条件非常敏感而不可预测的。双摆下落位置的微小变化将导致其轨迹发生巨大变化。图 1.3显示了双摆轨迹的疯狂路径示例（Ioannidis 2008）。如果你从尽可能靠近同一位置两次下落这样的双摆，每次它的路径都会完全不同。起始条件的微小差异不会造成其路径的微小差异，而是导致其路径与之前完全不同。
However, if you make a simple change to the dependable pendulum, it changes into something else entirely. If you add a joint in the middle of the rod that the pendulum hangs from and allow that joint to move freely, suddenly the path of the pendulum changes from being entirely predictable to being entirely unpredictable. The path of the double pendulum is chaotic: not random because it stays within known bounds but unpredictable because it is very sensitive to its starting conditions. A very slight change in where you let the double pendulum fall will create enormous changes in the path it traces out. Figure 1.3 shows an example of the wild path traced by a double pendulum (Ioannidis 2008). If you dropped such a double pendulum twice from as close to the same place as you could, its path would be entirely different each time. A tiny difference in its starting condition does not create a tiny difference in its path but instead results in a path that is utterly unlike any it has taken before.
图 1.3双摆的混沌、独特、不可预测的路径（Ioannidis 2008）
Figure 1.3 The chaotic, unique, unpredictable path of a double pendulum (Ioannidis 2008)
这种行为通常很难理解，因为我们看到的是部分而不是整体。我们或多或少可以理解钟摆是如何运作的，因为它的各个部分会产生直接的、看似线性的效果。只要增加一点变化，比如在双摆上增加一个关节，行为就会发生巨大变化。我们常常很难理解这种行为是如何产生的。
This kind of behavior is often difficult for us to understand because we see the parts rather than the whole. We can understand how a pendulum operates, more or less, because its parts lead to a direct, seemingly linear effect. Add just a little more variability, as with the addition of a single joint to the double pendulum, and often the behavior changes drastically. We often have a difficult time grasping how such behavior could arise.
这与我们之前讨论过的密歇根鱼测试相呼应：我们倾向于看到场景中的鱼，而不是它们的周围环境，我们将它们视为静态的独立部分。观察双摆时，我们倾向于将两根杆和关节视为静态部分，但我们看不到它们如何移动或相互作用。或者，如果我们确实看到了两个关节如何移动，如果我们应用逻辑的、还原论的思维，我们通常无法理解这样的设置如何会产生像图 1.3中所示的疯狂的非线性曲线。那么，我们是不是应该把整个场景看作一个整体？这引出了下一种思维：整体论。
This is an echo of the Michigan Fish Test we discussed earlier: we tend to see the fish in the scene, not their surroundings, and we see them as static independent parts. Looking at the double pendulum, we tend to see the two rods and the joints as static pieces, but we do not see how they move or interact together. Or if we do see how the two joints move, if we apply logical, reductionist thinking, we typically fail to understand how such a setup could produce crazy, nonlinear curves like those shown in Figure 1.3. Would we be better off seeing the whole scene together then, as one integrated piece? This leads us to the next kind of thinking: holism.
整体思维
Holistic Thinking
整体论是还原论的有效对立面。还原论是关于分析的，而整体论是关于综合、寻找统一性以及将看似不同的事物放在一起看待。在更极端的哲学形式中，整体论观点认为一切都是相互联系的，以至于一切都是一体。因此，整体论在日常生活中并不常用，尽管对许多人来说，一切事物都是相互联系的，在审美或哲学层面上很有吸引力。
Holism is the effective opposite of reductionism. Whereas reductionism is about analysis, holism is about synthesis, finding unities, and bringing and viewing seemingly different things together. In its more extreme philosophical forms, the holistic view is that everything is connected to the point that everything is one. As such, holism isn’t used as often in daily life, though for many the idea of everything being connected is appealing at an aesthetic or philosophical level.
与还原论一样，这种思维方式也有其可取之处：通过整体思考，你不会迷失于细节，并能够观察在更高层次的组织中运作的重大宏观效应和趋势，如群体、经济、生态等。整体论避免了丹尼特“贪婪还原论”的错误，例如，将人视为完整的个体，而不是化学物质的集合。
As with reductionism, there is something to recommend this kind of thinking: by thinking holistically, you don’t get lost in the details and are able to watch for significant macro effects and trends that operate at a higher level of organization, such as the group, economy, ecology, and so on. Holism avoids the errors of Dennett’s “greedy reductionism,” for example, seeing people as whole individuals rather than as a collection of chemicals.
然而，过分依赖综合论和整体论也会导致错误，就像过分依赖还原论和分析论一样。如果一切都相互关联，那么找到任何显著的因果关系就很困难。此外，很容易发现假阳性，即两个完全不相关的现象从整体的角度来看似乎有关联。除了前面讨论过的冰淇淋导致溺水的错误结论外，还有一些例子，比如 Vigen (2015) 在他的许多“虚假相关性”中所展示的。例如，图 1.4显示，美国小姐的年龄和蒸汽、热蒸气和热物体谋杀案在二十年内非常密切地联系在一起。
However, depending too much on synthesis and holism can lead to errors just as readily as can leaning too much on reductionism and analysis. If everything is connected, finding any significant cause-and-effect relationships can be difficult. Moreover, it’s easy to find false positives, where two completely unrelated phenomena nevertheless seem related from a holistic point of view. In addition to the incorrect conclusion that ice cream causes drownings discussed earlier, there are examples such as what Vigen (2015) showed in his many “spurious correlations.” For example, Figure 1.4 shows that the age of Miss America and murders by steam, hot vapors, and hot objects tracked very closely together for two decades.
从整体的角度来看，我们可能倾向于说这两种效应即使不是因果关系，也是相关的，但这显然是错误的。可能存在隐藏的潜在因素，但在这种情况下，这似乎不太可能。更有可能的是，这只是数据的巧合，没有任何真正的联系，在这种情况下，整体的综合观点被误用了。
From a holistic point of view, we might be tempted to say that these two effects are correlated if not causative, but this would be a clear error. There may be a hidden underlying factor, but in this case, that seems unlikely. It’s far more likely that this is a coincidence of data without any real connection and that a holistic, synthesizing view is misapplied in such a case.
整体论确实为我们带来了另一个重要概念，我们将以不同的方式多次回顾这个概念。这就是涌现的概念，即“大于部分之和”的整体。这是一个古老的思想，显然是由亚里士多德首先阐述的，他说：“对于所有由多个部分组成的事物，如果整体不是一堆简单的堆，而是部分之外的东西，那么它就有原因”（亚里士多德，公元前 350 年）。同样，在格式塔4心理学的早期，心理学家库尔特·科夫卡（Kurt Koffka）曾说过一句名言：“整体不同于部分之和”（Heider 1977）。在科夫卡看来，整体（例如图1.5中所示的白色三角形，我们看到它，尽管它实际上并不存在）并不大于部分，但正如亚里士多德所说，它有自己的存在，独立于组成它的部分（Wertheimer 1923）。几年后，简·克里斯蒂安·史末资 (1927) 在整体进化生物学中呼应了这一思想，他写道：“整体不仅仅是思想的人工构造；它们指向宇宙中真实存在的东西……以植物或动物作为整体的一种类型，我们注意到……各部分的统一是如此紧密和紧密，以至于大于各部分的总和。”这种持久的观点认为，整体是“宇宙中真实存在的东西”，它们从它们所包含的还原的、分析的部分中产生，但又独立于这些部分，这是一个我们将再次看到的重要观点。
Holism does bring us one other important concept that we will return to multiple times in different ways. This is the idea of emergence, of a whole that is “greater than the sum of its parts.” This is an ancient idea, apparently first articulated by Aristotle, who said, “In the case of all things which have several parts and in which the totality is not, as it were, a mere heap, but the whole is something beside the parts, there is a cause” (Aristotle 350 BCE). Similarly, in the early days of Gestalt4 psychology, the psychologist Kurt Koffka famously said that “the whole is other than the sum of the parts” (Heider 1977). In Koffka’s view, the whole (such as the white triangle shown in Figure 1.5 that we see even though it is not actually there) was not greater than the parts, but as Aristotle said, it has an existence of its own separate from the parts that make it up (Wertheimer 1923). This thought was echoed a few years later in holistic evolutionary biology by Jan Christian Smuts (1927), who wrote that “wholes are not mere artificial constructions of thought; they point to something real in the universe.…Taking a plant or animal as a type of a whole, we notice…a unity of parts which is so close and intense as to be more than the sum of its parts.” This persistent idea that wholes are “something real in the universe,” that emerge from, yet are independent of, the reductive, analyzed parts that they comprise, is a vital point that we will see again.
图 1.5知觉心理学和格式塔心理学研究的“主观轮廓”。我们的大脑会填充由周围环境形成的形状，即使形状本身并不存在
Figure 1.5 A “subjective contour,” researched in perceptual and Gestalt psychology. Our minds fill in a shape formed by its surroundings even though the shape itself does not exist
系统思维
Systemic Thinking
在还原论和整体论思维之间，有一种看待世界的方式可以称为系统思维。在很多方面，这是一种“金发姑娘”思维，介于太低级的还原论和太广泛的整体论思维之间，使用两者的方法。系统思维考虑流程或事件的结构和功能背景，而不是将其视为需要分解的机器或元素整体。正如你所看到的，学习系统思维是游戏设计师的一项重要技能。
In between reductionist and holistic thinking is a way of seeing the world that can be called systemic thinking. In many ways, this is a sort of “Goldilocks” thinking, in between the too low-level reductionist and too expansive holistic ways of thinking and using methods from both. Systemic thinking takes into account the structural and functional context of a process or an event rather than treating it as a machine to be broken down or an elemental whole. As you will see, learning to think systemically is a vital skill for game designers.
系统思维的关键方面包括能够分析性地找到并定义系统的各个部分，同样重要的是，了解它们如何在操作环境中作为一个整体存在和协同工作：它们如何影响和受系统其他部分的影响。这反过来又导致找到由这些交互形成的循环，以及各个部分如何增加或减少彼此的激活。稍后您将看到更多关于循环的内容，但就目前而言，“事物 A 影响 B，B 影响 C，C 影响 A”这一想法定义了系统循环。这个想法对于系统思维和系统游戏设计至关重要。
The key aspects of systemic thinking include being able to analytically find and define the parts of a system and, just as importantly, understanding how they exist and work together as a whole in an operational context: how they affect and are affected by other parts of the system. This in turn leads to finding the loops formed by these interactions and how the various parts increase or decrease each other’s activation. You will see a lot more about loops later on, but for now, the idea that “thing A affects B, B affects C, and C affects A” defines a systemic loop. This single idea is vital to systems thinking and to systemic game design.
还值得注意的是，描述循环和系统如何协同工作很困难，部分原因是语言是线性的：我必须写，你必须逐行阅读这些单词，一次一个。这意味着循环系统的描述会看起来很奇怪，直到你一直到最后并循环回到开头，甚至可能不止一次。系统是由循环组成的，而我们的语言不能很好地处理循环。
It’s also worth noting that describing how loops and systems function together is difficult in part because language is linear: I have to write and you have to read these words in a line, one at a time. This means that the description of a looping system is going to seem odd until you have gotten all the way to the end and looped back to the start, possibly even more than once. Systems are made of loops, and our language doesn’t handle loops well.
让我们从一个简单的循环示例开始，看看加热烤箱时会发生什么。您希望烤箱内的温度为某个值。该设置与当前温度之间的差距会增加施加到烤箱的热量。随着施加更多热量，温度上升，当前温度和所需温度之间的差距变小。最终达到目标温度，不再施加热量（见图1.6）。这样，烤箱形成了一个简单的反馈回路：温度设置差距会影响施加的热量，而施加的热量会缩小差距。
Let’s start off with a simple example of loops by looking at what happens when you heat up an oven. You have a desired temperature you want inside the oven. The gap between that setting and its current temperature increases the amount of heat applied to the oven. As more heat is applied, the temperature rises, and the gap between the current and desired temperatures becomes smaller. Eventually the target temperature is hit, and no further heat is applied (see Figure 1.6). In this way, the oven forms a simple feedback loop: the temperature setting gap affects the amount of heat applied, and the heat applied reduces the gap.
Figure 1.6 Heating up an oven as a feedback loop and the temperature change over time as heat is applied
图 1.7显示了更复杂但仍然经典的循环结构物理示例（并且很难用线性方式描述）。除非您对发动机有所了解，否则仅凭看图，您可能无法看出它的作用；您缺乏它的运行背景。重要的部分是图左侧的两个重物（A）、它们上方的连杆（C、D、E）和右侧的阀门（F）。
Figure 1.7 shows a more complex but still classic physical example of a looping structure (and one that is difficult to describe linearly). Unless you know something about engines, by just looking at the picture, you may not be able to see what this does; you’re lacking its operational context. The important parts are the two heavy weights (A) on the left side of the diagram, the connecting rods (C, D, E) above them, and the valve (F) on the right.
这些部件相互作用形成一个操作循环，如下所示（按照操作的每个部分一步一步来）：当右侧的阀门 (F) 打开时，空气会进入，从而使发动机（此图中未显示）运转得更快。这会导致左侧的中央垂直主轴 (B) 旋转得更快。这反过来又会导致重物 (A) 及其所在的臂由于其质量和离心力而散开；来自主轴的动量使它们想要向外飞出。结果，它们所连接的臂 (C) 向下拉，进而将顶部水平杠杆 (D) 的左端向下拉。由于杠杆 (D) 在中间枢转，这会使其右侧向上移动——从而拉动杆 (E)，使我们回到并关闭节流阀 (F)。
These parts all interact to form an operational loop as follows (take it one step at a time, following each part of the operation): As the valve (F) on the right opens, it lets in air, which allows an engine (not shown in this diagram) to run faster. This causes the central vertical spindle (B) on the left to spin faster. This in turn causes the weights (A) and the arms they are on to spread out due to their mass and centrifugal force; the momentum from the spindle makes them want to fly outward. As a result, the arms they are connected to (C) pull downward and, in turn, pull the left end of the horizontal lever (D) at the top downward. Because the lever (D) pivots in the middle, this brings its right-hand side up—which pulls up on the rod (E), which brings us back to and closes the throttle valve (F).
图 1.7离心调速器（Routledge 1881）。了解该组件的唯一方法是系统地了解其操作和上下文。它形成一个系统，而该系统本身又是更大系统的一部分。请参阅文本以了解此处显示的每个字母所关联的部分
Figure 1.7 A centrifugal governor (Routledge 1881). The only way to understand this assembly is systemically, via its operation and context. It forms a system that is itself a part in a larger system. See the text for the parts associated with each letter shown here
随着阀门打开，发动机吸入更多空气，因此旋转得更快。这导致重物移出，水平杆倾斜，阀门开始关闭，导致发动机减速。当发动机减速时，重物落回原位，水平杆左侧被推上去，右侧被推下去，阀门重新打开，导致发动机再次加速运转。
As the valve opens, the engine gets more air and so spins faster. This causes the weights to move out, the horizontal lever tilts, and the valve begins to close, causing the engine to slow down. As it slows down, the weights drop back down, the horizontal lever is pushed up on the left and down on the right, and the valve opens back up, causing the engine to once again run faster.
正是这个循环让离心调速器如此有效：它使发动机能够自我调节，保持在一定范围内，不会过快或过慢。但要理解这一点，您必须能够看到各个部件、它们相互关联的行为以及对发动机的整体系统影响。
This loop is what makes the centrifugal governor so effective: it enables the engine to self-regulate, staying within certain bounds, never going too fast or too slow. But to understand this, you have to be able to see the individual parts, their connected behaviors, and the overall systemic effect on the engine.
通过这种方式观察和思考机制，您可以构建系统的心理模型，并在心理和物理上进行尝试。操作性、系统性理解的一部分是弄清楚哪些部分在什么情况下相互作用，以及这些相互作用的哪些影响主导其他部分。在离心调速器这样的简单示例中，所有部件和相互作用似乎都同样重要。但摩擦起什么作用？如果某些接头太紧或太松怎么办？这会对发动机的运行产生重大影响吗？例如，如果这些连接没有松动或“间隙”，发动机可能会随着阀门的打开和关闭而不断上下振动，从而导致发动机不必要的磨损和整体性能不均匀。增加配重上的摩擦力，使它们上下移动得更慢，或增加水平杆的一点间隙，使其不会立即倾斜，如果像本例中那样，这会导致配重和阀门的反应更慢，从而使发动机运行更均匀，那么这样做是有用的。无论考虑的系统是蒸汽机调速器、经济体还是幻想游戏的魔法系统，创建所需的循环和效果都需要在操作上理解和建模系统，并改变各个部分或它们对彼此的影响以达到最大效果。
Seeing and thinking through the mechanism this way enables you to build a mental model of the system and to try it out both mentally and physically. Part of an operational, systemic understanding is figuring out which parts interact in what context and which effects of those interactions dominate others. In a straightforward example like the centrifugal governor, all the parts and interactions seem about equally important. But what part does friction play? What if some of the joints are too tight or too loose? Does that have a significant effect on the operation of the engine? It might be, for example, that if there is no looseness, or “play,” in these connections that the engine will continually oscillate up and down as the valve opens and closes, causing unwanted wear and tear on the engine and overall uneven performance. Increasing the friction on the weights, so they move up or down more slowly, or increasing a bit of play in the horizontal lever so it doesn’t tilt instantly, can be useful if, as in this example, it causes the reaction of the weights and valve to happen more slowly, thereby making the engine run more evenly. Whether the system under consideration is a steam engine governor, an economy, or a fantasy game’s magic system, creating the desired loops and effects requires understanding and modeling the system operationally and changing individual parts or their effects on one another to maximum effect.
系统思维要求将系统整体视为一个有组织的整体，但不能从还原论的角度忽视其各部分的分析基础及其运作方式。因此，系统思维是“兼而有之”而不是“非此即彼”：它兼具还原论和整体论的优势，但不会陷入通过其中一种视角看待世界的陷阱。这种“兼而有之”的品质——能够在保持分析和综合观点的同时理解系统——可能很难，但随着实践和对系统理解的更清晰，它会变得更容易。
Systemic thinking requires seeing a system holistically as an organized whole but without losing hold of the analytic grounding of its parts and how they work from the reductionist point of view. Systemic thinking is thus “both-and” not “either-or”: it employs the strengths of both reductionist and holistic thinking without falling into the trap of seeing the world via the lens of either one or the other. This “both-and” quality—being able to comprehend the system while maintaining both analytic and synthetic views—can be difficult but becomes easier with practice and with a clearer understanding of what systems are.
兔子和狼的系统
让我们再看两个小改动产生广泛系统影响的例子。乍一看，它们似乎与游戏设计没有太大关系，但这两个例子中的互动（被视为系统）正是您在设计任何复杂游戏时需要考虑的。
Let’s look at two more examples of small changes that had broad systemic effects. These may not seem at first glance to have much to do with game design, but the interactions within both examples, seen as systems, are exactly the kind you need to have in mind when designing any complex game.
首先，19 世纪中叶，托马斯·奥斯汀在澳大利亚东南部的自家土地上放生了 24 只兔子。据说他说：“放生几只兔子可能会“它们几乎不会造成伤害，除了可以狩猎之外，还能给人一种家的感觉”（《西澳大利亚州立隔离栅栏》第 2001 年第 289 页）。在它们被放归野外的几年里，这些兔子的数量一直保持相对稳定，但不到十年，它们的数量就出现了爆炸式增长。它们面临的掠食相对较少，有理想的挖洞条件，能够全年繁殖，而且可能由于两种兔子一起放生而杂交，因此它们的耐寒性有所提高（《动物控制技术》第 2001 年第 289 页）。
First, in the mid-19th century, Thomas Austin released 24 rabbits into the wild on his property in southeastern Australia. He is reported to have said that “the introduction of a few rabbits could do little harm and might provide a touch of home, in addition to a spot of hunting” (The State Barrier Fence of Western Australia n.d.). For a few years after their release into the wild, the population of these rabbits remained relatively small and stable, but within a decade, their numbers had exploded. They faced relatively little predation, had ideal burrowing conditions, were able to breed year-round, and may have enjoyed increased hardiness due to hybridization between two types of rabbits released together (Animal Control Technologies n.d.).
新物种的快速入侵给当地动植物带来了灾难性的环境破坏（Cooke 1988）。兔子的数量不断增加，它们夷平了灌木丛，啃食了小树靠近地面的外皮，导致树木死亡，造成大面积的侵蚀，夺走了其他动物赖以生存的食物和区域。
The result of this fast invasion by a new species was catastrophic environmental damage to native plants and animals (Cooke 1988). Rabbits in ever-increasing numbers flattened areas of brush, killed small trees by chewing off their outer bark close to the ground, caused widespread erosion, and removed sustenance and areas that other animals needed to live.
针对兔子泛滥的联合应对始于 19 世纪末，并持续至今。人们尝试了各种各样的方法，包括射击、诱捕、毒药、熏蒸和超过 2,000 英里的围栏，但没有一种能完全成功。为了娱乐和“家的感觉”而引进的野兔，以托马斯·奥斯汀肯定无法想象的方式改变了澳大利亚的景观和生物圈。
A concerted response to this plague of rabbits began in the late 1800s and continues to this day. A wide array of methods—including shooting, trapping, poisoning, fumigating, and over 2,000 miles of fencing—have been attempted, but none with complete success. Wild rabbits, introduced for a bit of sport and “a touch of home,” altered the landscape and biosphere of Australia in ways that surely Thomas Austin could not have imagined.
虽然有许多此类生态灾难故事都带有意想不到的后果，但并非全部都是负面的。这里的第二个例子涉及将狼重新引入美国黄石国家公园。19 世纪末，狼群在黄石地区漫游，但到 20 世纪 20 年代，它们被猎杀殆尽。在 10 年内，黄石的鹿和麋鹿数量急剧增加，许多植物正在死亡。到 20 世纪 60 年代，生物学家担心该地区的整个生态系统因麋鹿数量过多而失去平衡，并开始讨论重新引入狼。牧场主和其他人对这个想法表示强烈反对，因为狼是一种群猎的顶级捕食者，有些人认为，这可能会对该地区自然生态系统和牧场牛羊群造成全新的破坏。
While there are many such ecological disaster stories of unintended consequences, not all are negative. The second example here involves the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone National Park in the United States. Wolf packs roamed the Yellowstone area in the late 1800s but were hunted to the point that none were left by the 1920s. Within 10 years, the deer and elk populations in Yellowstone had increased dramatically, and many plants were dying off. By the 1960s, biologists were concerned that the entire ecosystem in the area was out of balance due to the large number of elk in particular, and talk began of bringing back wolves. There was a great deal of opposition from ranchers and others to the idea, as the wolf is a pack-hunting apex predator that, some thought, could wreak entirely new havoc on both the natural ecosystem and ranching herds of cattle and sheep in the area.
经过数十年的舆论和法律争论，1995 年 1 月，黄石国家公园重新引入了 14 只灰狼，随后一年内又引入了 52 只。结果影响深远，远远超出了许多人想象。这已成为营养级联的典型例子，高级别捕食者种群的变化会通过生态系统向下传递，造成广泛且往往意想不到的影响。
After decades of public opinion and legal wrangling, in January 1995 a small initial group of 14 gray wolves was reintroduced to Yellowstone, followed by an additional 52 over the course of the next year. The results were wide-ranging, far beyond what many thought possible. This has now become a classic example of a trophic cascade, in which changes to the population of a high-level predator cascade downward through an ecosystem, causing broad and often unexpected effects.
在这种情况下，狼群以数量过多的麋鹿为食，这一点是意料之中的。但是，麋鹿数量如此之多，而狼群却只有几只，因此不能指望捕食者独自控制麋鹿数量。除了杀死和吃掉一些麋鹿之外，狼群还将它们赶出了山谷中悠闲的生活，赶回了高地，在那里它们更容易躲藏，但生活也更加艰难。这导致麋鹿改变了它们的习性：它们不再来到河岸边吃肉和喝水。结果，它们无法繁殖那么多，繁殖得也不那么成功，这使它们的鹿群数量减少到更可持续的规模，同时仍为狼群提供了足够的猎物。
In this case, the wolves fed on the far too numerous elk, as had been expected. But with so many elk and only a few wolves, the predators could not be expected to constrain the elk population on their own. What the wolves did beyond killing and eating some of the elk though was to drive them out of their relaxed life in the valleys and back into the highlands, where they could more readily hide but where life was more difficult. This caused the elk to change their habits: no longer did they come down to the river banks for succulent eating and easy drinking. As a result, they were unable to breed as much or as successfully, which diminished their herds to more sustainable sizes, while still providing enough prey for the wolves.
麋鹿消失后，低谷的树木和草开始恢复生机。草不再被大群动物践踏，乔治·蒙比奥特 (George Monbiot) (2013) 报告称，谷地许多树木的高度在短短几年内就增加了五倍。这使得更多的浆果得以生长，反过来又养活了更多的熊（它们也吃掉了几只麋鹿）。茂盛的灌木、草和树木为更多的鸟类提供了栖息地，它们通过活动帮助传播种子并种植更多的树木和灌木。
In the absence of the elk, the trees and grasses in the lower valleys began to spring back. Grasses were no longer being trampled by enormous herds, and George Monbiot (2013) reported that the heights of many trees in the valley floors quintupled in just a few years. This allowed more berries to grow, which in turn supported more bears (who also ate a few of the elk). The flourishing bushes, grasses, and trees allowed for more birds, who through their activity helped spread seeds and grow more trees and bushes.
树木和草类的稳定性增强反过来又减少了早在 20 世纪 60 年代就已引起生态学家担忧的侵蚀。这意味着河岸塌陷的现象减少了，河水也变得更加清澈，让更多的鱼得以生长。河岸边生长的树木养育了更多的海狸，而海狸又通过筑坝为更多的动物创造了生存空间。
The increased stability in trees and grasses in turn decreased the erosion that had begun to alarm ecologists as far back as the 1960s. This meant that the riverbanks collapsed less, and the rivers became clearer, enabling more fish to grow. Trees growing by the banks supported more beavers, which in their turn created niches for many more animals via their dam building.
最后，侵蚀减少意味着黄石公园的河流发生了变化，然后稳定下来。蒙比奥特指出，狼的重新引入不仅会消灭几只麋鹿，还改变了那里河流的流向。作为这一广泛营养级联的一部分，这片土地本身的地理面貌也发生了改变。
Finally, the reduction in erosion meant that the rivers in Yellowstone Park changed and then stabilized in their courses. Far beyond just eliminating a few elk, as Monbiot notes, the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone changed the course of the rivers there. The physical geography of the land itself was altered as part of this wide-ranging trophic cascade.
这是一个令人难以置信的生态成功故事，同时也是自然界中发生的各种相互作用和循环的一个很好的例子，只有将它们视为系统才能理解。图 1.8以图形形式显示了黄石公园狼群的影响。每个带有“-”的箭头表示目标减少了——例如，狼减少了鹿和麋鹿的数量——而带有“+”的箭头表示目标增加了。它们也有反向传递效应：例如，因为鹿和麋鹿以前会吃（减少）树木和草，狼吃（并减少）麋鹿的数量反过来会减少麋鹿对树木和草的影响，而这些植物现在能够恢复。通过仔细研究此图，您可能能够更好地理解将少量狼群放回黄石公园所产生的循环系统效应，以及这种增加对那里整个生态系统产生的巨大影响。
As incredible an ecological success story as this is, it is also a great example of the kinds of interactions and loops that occur in the natural world and that can be appreciated only by seeing them as systems. Figure 1.8 shows in graphical form the effects of the wolves in Yellowstone. Each arrow with a “-” beside it means that the target was reduced—for example, the wolves reduced the number of deer and elk—while those with a “+” indicate that the target was increased. These have inverse transitive effects as well: for example, because the deer and elk were previously eating (reducing) the trees and grass, having the wolves eat (and reduce the number of) elk in turn reduced the elks’ effect on trees and grass, and this flora was now able to come back. By examining this diagram closely, you may be able to better understand the looping systemic effects created by putting a small number of wolves back into Yellowstone and the dramatic consequences this addition had on the whole ecosystem there.
系统思维简史
A Quick History of Systems Thinking
现在您对系统思维与其他世界观的比较有了一定的了解，本节将简要介绍我们对系统和世界的理解是如何演变的。
Now that you know a bit about systems thinking as compared to other ways of seeing the world, this section provides a brief history of how our understanding of systems and the world has evolved.
柏拉图对伽利略说：“整体由部分组成”
Plato to Galileo: “A Whole Organized Out of Parts”
系统这个词在英语中的出现基本上不受古希腊语systema的影响，后者意为“站在一起”，或者更宽泛地说是“由几个部分组成的整体”，这与我们现有的定义非常相似。对于至少早在欧几里得时期的希腊人来说，这个定义在含义上就有几种明显的变化，包括由几个音调组成的单个和弦、一群羊或一群牛，或一个有组织的政府（Armson 2011，Liddel and Scott 1940）。这些变化中的每一个都抓住了我们今天所考虑的系统的重要方面，所有这些都围绕着不同部分相互作用以形成更大整体的理念。
The word system appears in English essentially unscathed from the ancient Greek systema, meaning “standing together,” or, more broadly a “whole compounded of several parts,” which is very much like our existing definition. For the Greeks at least as far back as Euclid, this definition had several telling variations in meaning, including a single chord formed from several musical tones, a flock or herd, or an organized government (Armson 2011, Liddel and Scott 1940). Each of these variations captures important aspects of systems as we consider them today, all focused around the idea of disparate parts interacting to form a greater whole.
然而，希腊人及其追随者并没有系统地应用这种体系观：它花了许多世纪才成为世界的体系——而且在某些方面，它甚至到现在还没有完全实现。相反，如上所述，古代现象学的世界观结合了有限的观察和压倒一切的哲学。这为当时的人们提供了一种以地心为中心的宇宙观：在任何观察者看来，太阳、月亮和星星都围绕着位于一切中心的地球旋转。这种模型至少可以追溯到古埃及人，随着时间的推移，人们构建了越来越复杂的太阳系和宇宙模型来解释新的观察结果，但所有这些都是以一种临时的方式，没有统一的原则。甚至认为世界可能存在某种统一系统的想法似乎也很少被考虑，除了季节的规律以及星星和行星的升起和落下。它们为什么是那样是一个哲学问题，而不是观察问题。
Nevertheless, the Greeks and those who followed them did not apply this systema view itself systemically: it took many centuries until this became the system of the world—and in some ways it hasn’t fully happened even now. Instead, as discussed above, the ancient phenomenological view of the world combined limited observation and overriding philosophy. This provided the people of the time with a geocentric understanding of the universe: as it appeared to any observer, the Sun, Moon, and stars all rotated around the Earth, which sat in the center of it all. This model dates back at least to the ancient Egyptians, and over time people constructed increasingly elaborate models of the solar system and universe to account for new observations, but all in a kind of ad hoc way, where there was no unifying principle. Even the idea that there might be some kind of unifying system to the world seems to have borne little consideration beyond the regularities of the seasons and the rising and setting of the stars and planets. Why they were as they were was a matter of philosophy, not observation.
这种日益复杂的宇宙观最终在 1588 年由丹麦天文学家第谷·布拉赫提出的模型中达到顶峰，在该模型中，太阳和月球都围绕地球运行，而其他已知行星则围绕太阳运行。该模型使布拉赫能够保持古老的地心模型的哲学纯粹性，同时还解释了各种其他观测结果，包括伽利略后来于 1610 年通过革命性的望远镜观察到的金星和月球一样有相位（Thoren 1989）。第谷模型或“地心日心说”模型及其后续模型实际上是宇宙的哲学、现象学模型的最后立场。
This ever-more complicated view of the universe culminated in the model proposed in 1588 by Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, in which both the Sun and Earth’s Moon orbited around the Earth, while the remaining known planets orbited the Sun. This model enabled Brahe to maintain the philosophical purity of the venerable geocentric model while also accounting for a variety of other observations, including Galileo’s later 1610 observation via a revolutionary telescope that Venus had phases, just as did the Moon (Thoren 1989). This Tychonic, or “geo-heliocentric,” model and those that followed it were effectively the last stand for the philosophical, phenomenological model of the universe.
在第谷的宇宙模型发表近一个世纪后，它仍然是主流观点。但也有很多争议，其中一些最终彻底改变了我们看待世界的方式。在此期间，笛卡尔为相信我们的感官进行仔细观察以及使用数学来验证和扩展奠定了哲学基础。我们的观察。伽利略随后在 1632 年出版的一本里程碑式著作《关于两大世界体系的对话》中，拥护哥白尼或日心说的太阳系观，该观将太阳而不是地球置于事物的中心。（巧合的是，这本书也导致伽利略被怀疑为异端。）虽然这项工作没有直接涉及第谷体系，但它为另一个重大发展奠定了基础。
Nearly a century after Tycho’s model of the universe was published, it remained the dominant view. But there were a lot of rumblings, some of which eventually changed how we see the world completely. During this time, Descartes famously created the philosophical foundations for trusting our senses in careful observation and for using mathematics to validate and extend our observations. Galileo then championed the Copernican, or heliocentric, view of the solar system—which put the Sun, not Earth, at the center of things—in a landmark book published in 1632 innocuously called The Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems. (Not incidentally, this was the same book that caused Galileo to be suspected of heresy.) While this work didn’t directly address the Tychonic system, it set the stage for another major development that did.
牛顿的遗产：“世界体系”
Newton’s Legacy: “The System of the World”
17 世纪末，艾萨克·牛顿熟悉笛卡尔的著作，并且几乎肯定读过伽利略的书，因为这本书对他自己的著作产生了很大影响。他与埃德蒙·哈雷（这颗著名彗星以他的名字命名）通信，讨论彗星和木星卫星的计算。哈雷用望远镜对这些进行了精确的观测，牛顿在他的数学建模中使用了哈雷的笔记。根据他们的通信（包括一篇早期未发表的论文，我们现在只有草稿）和哈雷的观测数据，艾萨克·牛顿最终支持哥白尼和以太阳为中心的太阳系观，并以此将地心说和布拉赫模型从对世界运转方式的严肃思考中剔除（牛顿 c.1687/1974）。
In the late 1600s, Isaac Newton, who was familiar with Descartes’ work and who had almost certainly read Galileo’s book as it so clearly influenced his own, corresponded with Edmund Halley (for whom the famous comet is named) about the calculations of comets and the moons of Jupiter. Halley had kept precise observations of these with his telescope, and Newton used Halley’s notes in his mathematical modeling. Based on their correspondence (including an earlier, unpublished paper that we have now only in draft form) and Halley’s observational data, Isaac Newton was able to make the final argument in favor of Copernicus and the Sun-centered view of the solar system, and in so doing, he removed geocentrism and Brahe’s model from serious consideration of how the world worked (Newton c.1687/1974).
牛顿在 1687 年出版其巨作《数学原理》时完成了这项工作。（Newton 1687/c.1846）。《数学原理》第三卷名为《世界体系》，是一本重要的书，其标题也非常重要。在该卷中，牛顿基于哈雷对木星卫星的细致观察，推导出如今著名的引力方程。更重要的是，他表明地球和天上的引力相同。在此之前，没有任何假设，更不用说一个方程来表明物理机制在地球和木星上的运行方式相同。人们根本没有期望物理机制能够以任何方式统一。牛顿方程表明，运行的系统并不多，只有一个……一个引力、一个组织原则、一个系统：世界体系。
Newton did this as part of publishing his master work, the Principia Mathematica, in 1687. (Newton 1687/c.1846). Book III of the Principia is called De Mundi Systemate, or The System of the World—an important volume and title. In this volume, Newton derived his now famous equation describing gravity, based on Halley’s meticulous observations of Jupiter’s moons. More importantly, he showed that this gravity was the same on Earth and in the heavens. Prior to this there was no assumption, much less an equation to show, that physical mechanisms operated the same on Earth as on Jupiter. There was simply no expectation that physical mechanisms were unified in any way. Newton’s equations showed that there were not many systems operating, but one…one gravitation, one organizing principle, one system: the system of the world.
牛顿的《自然哲学的数学原理》的重要性及其对人们看待世界方式的改变无论怎样强调都不为过。地球上抛向空中的球的轨迹可以用与木星周围遥远卫星的轨迹相同的方程来描述，这一想法具有革命性。这一想法创造了一种新的、统一的、机械的宇宙观。太阳和行星都是一个巨大机制的一部分，可以像一个巨大的钟表一样用数学方法进行全面描述。
It’s difficult to overstate the importance of Newton’s Principia or the change it brought about in how people viewed the world. The idea that the path followed by a ball tossed into the air on Earth can be described by the same equations as the paths of the dimly seen sparks of light that are the distant moons orbiting Jupiter was more than revolutionary. This idea created a new, unified, mechanistic view of the universe. The Sun and the planets were all part of an enormous mechanism that could be fully described mathematically like a giant clockwork.
牛顿的工作引领了科学革命，并成为科学革命的一部分。这场革命不仅增加了知识，而且使人们认识到这种知识是可以实现的，宇宙不是反复无常的，而是建立在稳定、可定义的原则之上——只要这些原则能够被发现。世界不再受现象学的奇想和哲学沉思的支配，而是受严格的确定性逻辑的约束。
Newton’s work ushered in and was part of the scientific revolution. This was a revolution not only in increased knowledge but in the idea that such knowledge was attainable, that the universe was not capricious but was instead based on steady, definable principles—if only they could be discovered. The world was no longer subject to phenomenological whims and philosophical musings but was bound by strict deterministic logic.
牛顿到20世纪
牛顿将宇宙视为一个巨大的钟表，这一观点迅速从数学传播到物理学、化学、生物学、经济学，当然还有哲学。但和其他任何事物一样，它的受欢迎程度时起时落。布莱克和歌德等浪漫主义哲学家（之所以这样称呼，是因为他们更倾向于个人主义、想象力和情感，而不是启蒙运动的冷静逻辑和理性主义）批评了牛顿和笛卡尔。歌德在描述生物形态时引入了“形态学”的概念，形态被确定为“有组织的整体内的关系模式”（White 2008），这一观点可以追溯到古希腊，如今与系统思维相一致。然而，这种系统观并没有流行起来。而且，尽管浪漫主义者做出了努力，但直到 20 世纪，总体趋势仍然是接受世界是机械的。随之而来的是这样的思想：因为牛顿已经证明一切事物从原则上都可以归结为数学，所以数学（或物理学或化学）可以用来解释一切事物。
Newton’s ideas of the universe as a giant clockwork quickly spread from mathematics into physics, chemistry, biology, economics, and, of course, philosophy. But as with anything else, its popularity waxed and waned. Romantic philosophers (so-called because they favored individualism, imagination, and emotion rather than the cool logic and rationalism of the Enlightenment) such as Blake and Goethe critiqued Newton and Descartes. Goethe introduced the idea of “morphology” in describing biological form, with form being determined as “a pattern of relationships within an organized whole” (White 2008), a view that then hearkened back to the ancient Greeks and today is consistent with systems thinking. Nevertheless, this systemic view did not catch on. And, despite the efforts of the Romantics, the general trend until well into the 20th century was toward the acceptance of the world as mechanistic. Along with this came the idea that because Newton had shown that everything could, in principle, be reduced to mathematics, mathematics (or physics, or chemistry) could be used to explain everything.
系统思维的兴起
The Rise of Systems Thinking
在 20 世纪，系统思维的变体出现在生物学、心理学、计算机科学、建筑学和商业等各种领域。虽然许多人为系统思维及其相关领域（系统工程、复杂性理论等）的整体兴起做出了贡献，但我们将在这里简要介绍其中的几个，以提供一些背景信息并暗示人们采用系统思维的广泛方式。
In the 20th century, variations on what has become systems thinking appeared in widely diverse areas including biology, psychology, computer science, architecture, and business. While many people have contributed to the overall rise of systems thinking and its allied fields (systems engineering, complexity theory, and so on), we will briefly go over just a few of them here to provide some context and hint at the breadth of ways people have approached systems thinking.
如前所述，心理学家库尔特·科夫卡 (Kurt Koffka)、马克斯·韦特海默 (Max Wertheimer) 和沃尔夫冈·科勒 (Wolfgang Kohler) 创立了格式塔 (“形式”) 心理学学派 (Wertheimer 1923)，指出了当各个部分组合在一起形成一个新整体时所产生的整体涌现效应。同样，扬·史末资 (Jan Smuts) 也探索了类似歌德的想法，即“整体不仅仅是思想的人工构造；它们指向宇宙中真实的东西……以植物或动物作为整体的一种类型，我们注意到……各部分的统一是如此紧密和紧密，以至于大于其各部分的总和”(Smuts 1927)。这些思路本质上是原系统思维，但通常不会屈服于浪漫主义哲学家的个人主义甚至有时是反科学的思想。与前牛顿现象学观点一样，不同的系统思想通常不被应用或被视为系统宇宙的标志。系统的普遍应用直到 20 世纪末才开始发生；即使现在，我们仍然处于这一变革的门槛上。
As discussed earlier, psychologists Kurt Koffka, Max Wertheimer, and Wolfgang Kohler created the Gestalt (“form”) school of psychology (Wertheimer 1923), identifying the holistic emergent effects that are created when parts come together to create a new whole. Similarly, Jan Smuts explored the Goethe-like idea that “wholes are not mere artificial constructions of thought; they point to something real in the universe.…Taking a plant or animal as a type of a whole, we notice…a unity of parts which is so close and intense as to be more than the sum of its parts” (Smuts 1927). These lines of thinking were essentially proto-systems thinking, though generally without giving in to the individualist and sometimes even anti-scientific ideas of the Romantic philosophers. As in the pre-Newtonian phenomenological view, disparate ideas of systems were not generally applied or seen as being indicative of a systemic universe. The general application of systems would not begin to happen until late in the 20th century; even now we remain on the threshold of this change.
继史末资之后，奥地利生物学家卡尔·冯·贝塔朗菲向宇宙的广泛系统观迈出了一大步。1949 年，他写下了系统思维作为一般方法的第一个真正表述，他写道：
Following Smuts, Karl von Bertalanffy, an Austrian biologist, took a big step toward a broad systemic view of the universe. He wrote what was arguably the first true formulation of systems thinking as a general approach in 1949 when he wrote of these foundations as:
…适用于广义系统或其子类的模型、原理和定律，而不论其具体类型、组成元素的性质以及它们之间的关系或“力量”。（Bertalnaffy 1949）
…models, principles, and laws that apply to generalized systems or their subclasses, irrespective of their particular kind, the nature of their component elements, and the relation or ‘forces’ between them. (Bertalnaffy 1949)
贝塔朗菲在其 1968 年出版的《一般系统理论》一书中对此进行了广泛的阐述，并对其认为既广泛又对所有其他理论都具有根本性意义的主题进行了介绍：
In his 1968 book General Systems Theory, Bertalanffy expanded on this greatly, including this introduction to what he saw as both a broad topic and one that was fundamental to all others:
因此，一般系统理论是一门“整体性”的一般科学，迄今为止，它被认为是一个模糊、朦胧和半形而上学的概念。在详细形式中，它将是一门逻辑数学学科，本身纯粹是形式上的，但适用于各种经验科学……[包括]最多样化的领域，如热力学、生物和医学实验、遗传学、人寿保险统计等。（Bertalnaffy 1968）
General systems theory, therefore, is a general science of “wholeness” which up till now was considered a vague, hazy, and semi-metaphysical concept. In elaborate form it would be a logico-mathematical discipline, in itself purely formal but applicable to the various empirical sciences… [including] most diverse fields, such as thermodynamics, biological and medical experimentation, genetics, life insurance statistics, etc. (Bertalnaffy 1968)
虽然贝塔朗菲未能实现这一愿景，但他的工作对于将系统思维原理传播到许多学科至关重要。
While Bertalanffy was never able to see this vision fulfilled, his work was crucial in spreading the principles of systems thinking into many disciplines.
在 20 世纪中叶，其他人积极探索和筛选可以引领更广泛系统思维的概念。其中一位著名人物是诺伯特·维纳，他撰写了开创性的著作《控制论》（1948 年）。这本以数学为导向的书推动了计算机科学、人工智能和系统思维的诸多进步。同时，它的标题、重点和后来的影响可能表明系统思维中存在一个重要的分歧。控制论源于希腊语，意为“治理”或“掌舵或控制的人”。5维纳将控制论定义为“通信和控制”科学（第 39 页），并设想控制论是关于“与外部世界有效耦合的自动机”，其传感器和效应器（输入和输出）与内部“中央控制系统”交互（第 42 页）。这种集中控制的思想在 20 世纪非常流行，很难摆脱。然而，正如您将看到的，系统思维和系统设计都要求并使我们能够摆脱中央控制器的限制，而是使有组织的功能从系统本身中出现。
During the mid-20th century, others were active in exploring and winnowing concepts that would lead to broader systems thinking. One notable is Norbert Wiener, who wrote the seminal book Cybernetics (1948). This mathematically oriented book led to many advances in computer science, artificial intelligence, and systems thinking. At the same time, its title, focus, and later influence may be indicative of an important divide in thinking about systems. Cybernetics comes from the Greek word meaning “governance” or “one who steers or controls.”5 Wiener defined cybernetics as the science “of communication and control” (p. 39) and envisioned cybernetics to be about “automata effectively coupled to the external world” with sensors and effectors—inputs and outputs—interacting with an internal “central control system” (p. 42). This idea of centralized control was very much in vogue in the 20th century and has been a difficult one from which to break free. However, as you will see, systems thinking and systemic design both require and enable us to leave behind the limitations of a central controller, enabling instead organized function to emerge from the system itself.
在维纳的书出版几年后，约翰·福雷斯特开始研究后来被称为系统动力学的东西——系统思维树的另一个分支。1970 年，在城市发展小组委员会作证时（以及后来关于同一主题的论文），福雷斯特指出，“社会系统属于多环非线性反馈系统。”（Forrester 1971，第 3 页）他说，这些是“系统动力学专业领域”的领域，这是一种比以往更准确地理解社会系统如何运作的新方法。系统动力学现在主要用于商业和一些工程学科。因果关系的紧凑模型使解开复杂、混乱的现实世界情况变得容易得多。这种用法后来导致了广受欢迎的《第五项修炼》（Senge 1990）一书的问世，该书向商界许多人介绍了系统思维的概念。
Beginning a few years after Wiener’s book was published, John Forrester started work on what would eventually become known as system dynamics—another branch on the tree of systemic thinking. In his 1970 testimony before the Subcommittee on Urban Growth (and later paper on the same topic), Forrester noted that “social systems belong to the class called multi-loop nonlinear feedback systems.” (Forrester 1971, p. 3) These, he said, were the province of “the professional field of system dynamics,” a new way to understand how social systems worked with better fidelity than ever before. System dynamics is now used primarily in business and some engineering disciplines. The compact model of causal relations makes it much easier to disentangle complex, messy real-world situations. This usage later led to the highly popular book The Fifth Discipline (Senge 1990), which introduced many in the business community to the concepts of systems thinking.
虽然控制论的早期研究保持了中央控制的思维模式，但它也导致了复杂性科学和复杂自适应系统 (CAS) 的研究，这些研究侧重于研究模拟许多小型、通常简单的代理及其相互作用产生的复杂行为。这导致了对进化和人工生命以及有机、生态和社会过程的理解的突破。约翰·霍兰德对这一领域做出了巨大贡献；他的著作《隐藏的秩序》（1995 年）和《涌现》（1998 年）都极大地提高了我们对系统作为普遍过程的理解。
While early work in cybernetics maintained a central control mindset, it also led to work in complexity science and complex adaptive systems (CAS), which focuses on the study of simulations of many small, typically simple agents and the complex behaviors that arise from their interactions. This has led to breakthroughs in understanding of evolution and artificial life, as well as organismic, ecological, and social processes. John Holland contributed enormously to this field; his books Hidden Order (1995) and Emergence (1998) have both greatly increased our current understanding of systems as universal processes.
与此同时，克里斯托弗·亚历山大 (Christopher Alexander) 等人也在发展类似的思维方式——就他而言，他所从事的是建筑领域。正如您将在本章后面看到的那样，亚历山大的著作《模式语言》(1977 年) 和《永恒的建筑之道》 (1979 年) 使人们更加意识到模式或系统在从物理架构到软件工程等许多环境中的重要性。
In parallel with these developments, others such as Christopher Alexander were developing similar ways of thinking—in his case in the field of architecture. As you will see later in this chapter, Alexander’s books A Pattern Language (1977) and The Timeless Way of Building (1979) led to a greater awareness of the importance of patterns, or systems, in many contexts, from physical architecture to software engineering.
当今的系统思维
系统思维的深入发展从 20 世纪末一直持续到今天。该领域的杰出人物包括 Donella Meadows、Fritjof Capra、Humberto Maturana 和 Francisco Varela（合著和个人），以及 Niklas Luhmann。
The deep development of systems thinking has continued from the last years of the 20th century to today. A few luminaries of this area include Donella Meadows, Fritjof Capra, Humberto Maturana, and Francisco Varela (together and individually), as well as Niklas Luhmann.
梅多斯是一位环保主义者，主要在 20 世纪后期写作。她对许多人产生了很大的影响，使他们更加注重环保意识和系统思维。尤其是她的著作《系统思维》（2008 年），为许多人介绍了系统思维。
Meadows was an environmentalist writing primarily in the late 20th century. She was highly influential in bringing many people to both a greater sense of environmental awareness and systemic thinking. In particular, her book Thinking in Systems (2008) has been the introduction to systems thinking for many people.
卡普拉是一位物理学家，他通过畅销书将目光投向了系统性和整体性思维。迄今为止，他的作品以《物理学之道》 （1975 年）为开端，该书寻求科学与神秘主义的整体融合，最近，他又出版了生物学教科书《生命的系统观》 （2014 年） ，更具体地关注系统思维的应用。在这些作品和其他作品中（包括他参与编写的 1990 年电影《心灵漫步》），卡普拉主张从机械的笛卡尔和牛顿科学、生命和宇宙观的局限性转向更加互联的系统观。
Capra is a physicist who turned his sights on systemic and often holistic thinking via popular books. His work thus far is bookended by The Tao of Physics (1975), which sought a holistic meeting of science and mysticism, and more recently and more specifically focused on applying systems thinking, the biology text The Systems View of Life (2014). In both these and other works (including the 1990 movie Mindwalk that he co-wrote), Capra argues for moving from the limitations of the mechanistic Descartian and Newtonian view of science, life, and the universe to a more interconnected, systemic view.
马图拉纳和瓦雷拉通过生物学进入了系统思维的世界。他们因创造“自创生”一词并详细探讨这一重要概念而闻名（1972 年）。自创生是生物自我创造的过程。正如马图拉纳和瓦雷拉在他们的书中所说：
Maturana and Varela came to the world of systems thinking via biology. They are known in particular for coining the term autopoiesis and exploring this important concept in detail (1972). Autopoiesis is the process by which living things create themselves. As Maturana and Varela said in their book:
自创生机器是一种由组件生产过程（转换和破坏）网络组织起来（定义为一个单位）的机器，这些组件：（i）通过它们的相互作用和转换，不断再生和实现产生它们的过程（关系）网络；（ii）通过指定其实现的拓扑域作为这样一个网络，将其（机器）构成为它们（组件）所处空间中的一个具体单位。（第 78 页）
An autopoietic machine is a machine organized (defined as a unity) as a network of processes of production (transformation and destruction) of components which: (i) through their interactions and transformations continuously regenerate and realize the network of processes (relations) that produced them; and (ii) constitute it (the machine) as a concrete unity in space in which they (the components) exist by specifying the topological domain of its realization as such a network. (p. 78)
这种描述可能有点晦涩，但它提出了重要的系统概念：整体被视为一个整体，支持它的底层流程网络实际上在物理空间中不断创造机器（或细胞或生命）。我们将多次回顾这一概念：一个由多个进程组成的网络，它们共同协作，无需集中控制，即可形成一个更有组织的整体。
This description may be a bit dense, but it calls out important systemic concepts: the whole viewed as a unity and the underlying network of processes that support it and actually continually create the machine (or cell or being) in physical space. This concept of a network of processes working together and without centralized control to create a more organized whole is one we will revisit many times.
最后，卢曼是一位德国社会学家，写作时间接近 20 世纪末。虽然他的重点是社会的系统模型，但他借用并扩展了马图拉纳和瓦雷拉的许多思想，特别是社会系统是自创生的，是个体之间交流互动的结果（卢曼 2002，2013）。在卢曼看来，交流不存在于单个个体中，而只存在于人与人之间，或者，用我们在这里使用的术语来说，是两个或多个人交流时产生的系统效应，其中个体是由此产生的系统中相互作用的部分。卢曼对系统理论的贡献，认为它广泛适用于各个学科，至今仍在探索中。这在某种程度上是贝塔朗菲“一般系统理论”的复兴，这一观点是将系统思维应用于游戏设计以及使用游戏设计来阐明我们对系统的理解的核心。
Finally, Luhmann was a German sociologist writing near the end of the 20th century. While his focus was on systemic models of society, he borrowed and expanded on many of Maturana and Varela’s ideas, in particular the idea of social systems as being autopoietic and resulting from communicative interactions between individuals (Luhmann 2002, 2013). In Luhmann’s view, communications exist not within a single individual but only between people or, in the terms we use here, as the emergent systemic effect of two or more people communicating, where the individuals are interacting parts within the resulting system. Luhmann’s contributions to systems theory, treating it as broadly applicable across disciplines, are still being explored today. This is in some ways a resurgence of Bertalanffy’s “general systems theory,” a view that lies at the heart of applying systems thinking to game design and using game design to illuminate our understanding of systems.
系统思维的历史尚未结束，很可能才刚刚开始。尽管系统思维及其相关领域（系统动力学、复杂自适应系统等）历史悠久、进展迅速，但对于许多未直接参与其中的人来说，它们仍然难以捉摸。一些教材已经开始出现，例如卡普拉的《系统的人生观》（2014 年）是针对大学水平的，而《游戏系统》（Teknibas 等人，2014 年）是针对年轻学生的教师的；也有许多以商业为导向的书籍和网站专注于系统思维。然而，许多人——即使是那些工作似乎需要强烈系统思维的人——仍然不确定系统是什么，以及他们为什么要了解或关心系统。
The history of systems thinking is not finished; it has likely only begun. Despite its rich history and many advances, systems thinking and its associated fields (system dynamics, complex adaptive systems, and so on) remain elusive for many who are not directly involved with them. A few texts have begun to appear, such as Capra’s The Systems View of Life (2014) at the university level and Gaming the System (Teknibas et al. 2014), intended for teachers of younger students; there are also many business-oriented books and websites focused on systems thinking. Nevertheless, many people—even those whose work would seem to require a strong sense of systems thinking—remain uncertain about what systems are and why they should know or care about systems at all.
系统作为世界的过程
Systems as the Process of the World
系统思维是 21 世纪生存的一项重要技能。如前所述，系统思维能力对本世纪的重要性不亚于阅读能力对上个世纪的重要性。我们需要能够转变视角，认识到世界上运作的系统，这样我们才能理解甚至预测诸如几只兔子造成的生态破坏或几只狼造成的积极营养级联之类的事件。
Systems thinking is a vital skill for surviving in the 21st century. As stated earlier, being able to think in terms of systems is as important for this century as being able to read was for the previous one. We need to be able to shift our perspective and recognize the systems at work in the world, such that we can understand or even predict events like the ecological destruction wreaked by a few rabbits or the positive trophic cascade created by a few wolves.
我们还需要能够预测人类世界的变化并做出有效反应。特别是自 20 世纪 80 年代以来，我们的世界变得更加互联互通，互动性更强，这带来了许多新的潜在问题和机遇，从 2008 年的金融危机到全球贸易和国际相互依存度的提高。线性、还原论的思维不足以理解这些事件和趋势背后的过程以及我们未来将面临的过程。我们的世界再也无法被分割成整齐的部分，任何形式的线性分析也不足以理解我们周围发生的一切。
We also need to be able to anticipate and react effectively to changes in the human world. In particular, since the 1980s, our world has become far more interconnected and interactive, which has created a host of new potential problems and opportunities, ranging from the financial crisis of 2008 to increased global trade and international interdependence. Linear, reductionist thinking is insufficient for understanding the processes behind these events and trends and those we will face in the future. Our world can no longer be segmented into neat pieces, nor is any form of linear analysis sufficient for comprehending all that goes on around us.
互联互通的世界
An Interconnected World
以过去几十年来世界发生的变化为例，回顾 20 世纪 80 年代以来技术的变化，我们就能清醒地认识到世界已经变得多么紧密相连，以及它还能走多远。
As an example of how our world has changed in the past few decades, looking at how technology has changed since the 1980s gives us a sobering view of how interconnected the world has become and how far it may yet go.
思科系统是世界上最大的计算机网络硬件制造商。2014 年，该公司首席执行官约翰·钱伯斯 (John Chambers) 描述了自 1984 年公司成立以来世界发生了怎样的变化，这在很大程度上要归功于思科所做的工作 (Sempercon 2014)。他说，那一年，世界上大约有 1,000 台计算设备通过互联网连接在一起，大部分是在大学和一些科技公司。6不到十年的时间，到 1992 年，这一数字已跃升至超过 100 万台互联设备。到 2008 年，互联设备数量已超过 100亿台，远远超过地球人口。钱伯斯预计，到 2020 年，互联计算设备的数量将至少增加到 500 亿台。但他指出，今天只有不到 1% 的所有可连接到互联网的设备实现了互联；换句话说，我们仍处于互联世界门槛的早期阶段。
Cisco Systems is the largest manufacturer of computer networking hardware in the world. The company’s CEO, John Chambers, described in 2014 how the world had changed—in no small part due to work done at Cisco—since the company’s founding in 1984 (Sempercon 2014). He said that in that year, there were about 1,000 computing devices in the world that were connected together through the Internet, mostly at universities and a few technology corporations.6 In less than a decade, by 1992, that number had jumped to over 1 million interconnected devices. By 2008, there were more than 10 billion connected devices—far exceeding the population of Earth. Chambers expects the number of connected computing devices to rise to at least 50 billion by 2020. And yet he noted that today fewer than 1% of all devices that could be connected to the Internet are connected; we are, in other words, still on the early side of the threshold of having an interconnected world.
同样，2017 年初，芯片制造商高通公司的首席执行官斯蒂芬·莫伦科普夫 (Stephen Mollenkopf) 讨论了计算设备之间第五代 (5G) 网络的出现。他说，这种新一代连接芯片“将以自电力发明以来从未见过的方式改变社会”，开启一个“互联城市时代，从房屋到路灯，一切都可以相互交流”(Reilly 2017)。这很可能只是营销的夸张，但正如莫伦科普夫 (2017) 所说，这些芯片将支持“规模、速度和复杂性空前的多种设备”。简而言之，连接性和相互关联的快速增长没有放缓的迹象。
In a similar vein, in early 2017, Stephen Mollenkopf, the CEO of chip manufacturer Qualcomm, discussed the advent of fifth generation (5G) networking between computing devices. He said this new generation of connective chips “will change society in ways we haven’t seen since the introduction of electricity,” ushering in an era with “connected cities where everything from the houses to the street lamps talk to each other” (Reilly 2017). That may well be just a lot of marketing hyperbole, but as Mollenkopf (2017) said, the chips will support “a vast diversity of devices with unprecedented scale, speed and complexity.” In short, the fast rise in connectivity and interrelatedness shows no sign of slowing.
这还只是硬件。就文字、图片和其他数据而言，思科的钱伯斯指出，仅 Facebook 和亚马逊每天创建的信息量就超过 20 PB（即 20,000 TB）。这比从最古老的金字塔时代到互联网时代开始，人类每天创建的所有记录的总和还要多，而且所有这些都是在线连接的。
That’s just the hardware. In terms of words, pictures, and other data, Cisco’s Chambers noted that the amount of information created every single day just by Facebook and Amazon exceeds 20 petabytes (that is, 20,000 terabytes). This is more, every day, than the sum of all human records created from the time of the oldest pyramids to the beginning of the Internet Age, and it is all connected online.
这些相互联系可能产生远远超出当地范围的反响。例如，你能否获得汽车或房屋贷款，直接受到世界各地城市银行家和投资者的前景和担忧的影响。1993 年，一场大火烧毁了日本新滨住友化学工厂，这是世界市场紧密联系的一个具体例子。一家生产环氧树脂的工厂。这场火灾导致全球计算机内存芯片的价格在短短几周内从每兆字节 33 美元飙升至每兆字节 95 美元（以 1993 年美元计算），因为这家工厂生产了制造这些芯片所用塑料的 60%（Mintz 1993 年）。火灾发生后两年多时间里，这一事件影响了计算机内存的销售。
These interconnections can have reverberations far beyond the local scale. For example, your ability to get a loan for a car or house is directly affected by the outlook and fears of bankers and investors in cities around the world. As a specific example of how tightly connected world markets are, in 1993 a fire destroyed the Sumitomo Chemical Plant in Nihama, Japan, a factory that made epoxy resin. The result of this one fire was that computer memory chip prices unexpectedly soared from $33 per megabyte to $95 per megabyte (in 1993 US dollars) worldwide in just a few weeks because this plant manufactured 60% of the plastic used to make these chips (Mintz 1993). This one event affected the sales of computer memory for over two years after the fire.
在这个金融、经济、家庭、生态和国家密不可分的世界里，如果我们对它们所形成的系统及其影响一无所知，或者我们认为简单的线性解决方案就足够了，那么我们注定会被这些系统的影响所驱动，而不是理解和驱动它们。
In this world where finances, economies, families, ecologies, and nations are inextricably connected, if we remain ignorant of the systems they form and the effects these systems have, or if we assume that simplistic linear solutions will be sufficient, then we doom ourselves to be driven by the effects of these systems rather than understanding and driving them.
早在 1991 年，美国教育部和劳工部就认识到在社会各个层面提高系统思维的必要性。他们将系统思维称为“21 世纪的关键技能”，并称其为职场准备所需的“五大能力”之一：
As far back as 1991, the U.S. Department of Education and the Department of Labor recognized the necessity of improving systems thinking at all levels of society. They labeled systems thinking as a “critical 21st century skill,” calling it one of “five competencies” needed for workplace preparedness:
工人应该在周围人的背景下理解自己的工作；他们了解零件和系统是如何连接的，预测后果，并监控和纠正自己的表现；他们可以识别系统性能的趋势和异常，整合多种数据显示，并将符号（例如，计算机屏幕上的显示）与真实现象（例如，机器性能）联系起来。
Workers should understand their own work in the context of those around them; they understand how parts and systems are connected, anticipate consequences, and monitor and correct their own performance; they can identify trends and anomalies in system performance, integrate multiple displays of data, and link symbols (e.g., displays on a computer screen) with real phenomena (e.g., machine performance).
随着工作世界变得越来越复杂，所有工人都必须在他人工作背景下理解自己的工作。他们必须将离散任务视为一个连贯整体的一部分。（美国教育部和美国劳工部，1991 年）
As the world of work has become more complex, all workers have been required to understand their own work in the context of that of others. They must think of discrete tasks as part of a coherent whole. (U.S. Department of Education and U.S. Department of Labor, 1991)
沿着这个思路，软件工程师 Edmond Lau 将系统思维列为任何程序员都需要培养的五大技能之一（Lau 2016）：
Along these lines, software engineer Edmond Lau cited systems thinking as one of the top five skills any programmer needs to develop (Lau 2016):
为了构建和发布真正重要的代码，你需要将你的思维从代码提升到整个系统的水平：
To build and ship code that actually matters, you need to elevate your thinking beyond your code to the level of the entire system:
您的代码如何与代码库的其他部分以及其他人正在构建的功能相适应？
How does your code fit in with other parts of the codebase and features other people are building?
您是否对代码进行了充分的测试？质量保证团队（如果有）是否能够执行您所构建的功能？
Have you sufficiently tested your code, and will the quality assurance team (if any) be able to exercise the functionality you’ve built?
需要对生产环境进行哪些更改才能部署您的代码？
What changes need to be made to the production environment for your code to be deployed?
这段新代码是否会对其他正在运行的系统的行为或性能产生不利影响？与您的代码交互的客户和用户的行为是否符合预期？
Will this new code adversely affect the behavior or performance of any other running systems?Are customers and users who interact with your code behaving as expected?
您的代码是否会带来预期的业务影响？
Does your code lead to the desired business impact?
这些都是难题，要回答好这些问题需要付出努力。但你需要有一个清晰的思维模型，了解你的代码在整体中的位置，才能知道如何将你的时间和精力投入到产生最大积极影响的工作上。
These are hard questions, and answering them well takes effort. But you need a clear mental model of where your code fits into the big picture to know how to direct your time and energy toward the work with the greatest positive impact.
尽管显然需要改进系统思维，并且能够识别和分析世界上正在运行的系统，但系统思维仍然主要作为学术追求或狭隘的商业应用而萎靡不振。我们继续以还原论、线性、机械的方法看待世界，好像它们足以理解和影响它。实际上，我们仍然只看到 Nesbitt 测试中的大鱼，而忽略了实际操作背景，尽管我们通常知道得更多。
Despite the clear need for improved systems thinking and the benefits of being able to recognize and analyze the systems at work in the world, systems thinking has continued to languish as primarily an academic pursuit or one used narrowly in business. We continue to approach the world as if reductionist, linear, clockwork methods were sufficient to understand and affect it. We are, in effect, still stuck in seeing only the big fish in Nesbitt’s test, ignoring the operative context even though we often know better.
体验系统
Experiencing Systems
我们仍然只看到大鱼的部分原因是系统极难从外部解释。系统不是静态的，试图用还原论、分析论、静态的观点来理解系统注定会失败。
Part of the reason we are still seeing only the big fish is that systems are extremely difficult to explain from the outside. Systems are not static, and trying to understand them using a reductionist, analytic, static point of view is doomed to failure.
例如，正如 Craig Reynolds (1987) 首次指出的那样，仅使用三条规则就可以定义一个完全组织的鸟群系统：
For example, as first shown by Craig Reynolds (1987), it is possible to define the system of a fully organized flock of birds using only three rules:
1.每只鸟都试图不撞到任何邻居。
1. Each bird tries not to hit any of its neighbors.
2.每只鸟都试图与邻居朝相同的方向飞行，并以相同的速度飞行。
2. Each bird tries to go in about the same direction and about the same speed as its neighbors.
3.每只鸟都试图到达它所能看到的周围鸟的重心。
3. Each bird tries to get to the center of mass of the birds it can see around it.
遵循这些规则，用小型人工鸟或软件中的类似代理可以生成一个完全可信的鸟群，它们在飞行中自然移动（见图1.9）。但读完这三条规则后，你不太可能有足够的心理模型来创建它们之间的反馈循环形成了羊群。将这些视为静态规则不足以创建交互式互联系统。
Following these rules with small artificial birds or similar agents in software generates an entirely believable flock that moves about naturally in flight (see Figure 1.9). But having read those three rules, it is unlikely that you now have a sufficient mental model to create the feedback loops between them from which the flock emerges. Reading these as static rules is not sufficient to create the interactive, interconnected system.
相反，要认识和有效分析系统，需要有系统观：必须在系统的操作环境中看待系统——总之，必须亲身体验才能完全理解。体验系统，特别是创建和修改系统，是理解系统和提高从系统角度看待世界的能力的唯一方法。
Instead, to recognize and effectively analyze systems requires a systemic view: Systems must be viewed in their operational context—they must, in a word, be experienced to be fully comprehended. Experiencing systems, and in particular creating and modifying them, is the only way to understand them and to improve the ability to see the world in terms of systems.
游戏设计与体验系统
Game Design and Experiencing Systems
本书的立场是，体验系统（学会识别、分析、修改和创建系统）的最佳方式是设计和创建游戏，这一点也许并不令人意外。正如您将在第 3 章“游戏和游戏设计基础”中看到的那样，游戏在很多方面都很独特，这使得它们成为学习和创建新系统的理想选择。游戏为人们（尤其是游戏设计师）提供了反思自己的思维（如前所述，元认知）和他们在游戏中创建的心理模型的机会。这种反思使人们能够辨别游戏中原本看不见的系统，并认识到在他们生活的其他方面运作的类似系统。
The position of this book, perhaps not surprisingly, is that by far the best way to experience systems—to learn to recognize, analyze, modify, and create systems—is by designing and creating games. As you will see in Chapter 3, “Foundations of Games and Game Design,” games are unique in several ways that make them ideal for learning about and creating new systems. Among these are the opportunity that games provide for people—especially game designers—to reflect on their own thinking (metacognition, as described earlier) and the mental models they have created as part of the game. This reflection enables people to discern the systems in the game that are otherwise invisible and to recognize similar systems operating in other aspects of their life.
举个例子，几年前，我和妻子准备把房子挂牌出售，并讨论如何定价。这引起了我们孩子们在餐桌上提出的问题，比如房价是如何确定的，是否有人对价格设定了限制，如果定价过高或过低会发生什么，以及许多类似且可以理解的问题。
As one example of this, a number of years ago, my wife and I were about to put our house on the market and were discussing how to price it. This brought questions from our children at the dinner table about how the price of a house was determined, whether anyone set a limit on the price, what would happen if you priced it too high or too low, and many similar and understandable questions.
不久之后，一个孩子就发现了其中的奥秘：“这听起来就像是《魔兽世界》中的拍卖行！”在这款游戏中，就像在许多其他在线游戏中一样，玩家可以将自己在游戏中找到的物品拿出来出售。为了有效地出售，玩家必须关注其他类似物品的价格，不要将自己的物品定价过高或过低。如果只有少数类似物品，他们就必须做出最佳猜测，看看自己的物品卖得如何。所有这些复杂的玩家行为都源于暴雪创建的经济系统，而这正是拍卖行的基础。在那一天，该系统的体验推广到了现实世界，从出售现实世界中的稀有物品（我们的房子）的角度来看，这一切都是有意义的，就像出售游戏中的稀有物品一样。
Before too long, one of the children made the crucial connection: “This sounds just like the Auction House in World of Warcraft!” In that game, as in many other online games, players can take items they have found in the game and put them up for sale. To sell effectively, the player has to watch the prices for other similar items, not pricing theirs too high or too low. If there were few similar items, they would have to make their best guess and see how well their item sold. All this complex player behavior arises out of the economic system that Blizzard created and that is the underpinning of the Auction House. On that day, the experience with that system generalized to the real world, and it all made sense in terms of selling a real-world rare item (our house) just as it did selling a rare in-game item.
将世界理解为系统
在理解了认识、分析和创建系统的重要性之后，我们仍然需要更全面地了解系统是什么以及它们如何运作。但要做到这一点，我们需要从一个不同且更容易识别的地方开始：事物世界。这是我们习惯的世界，可能我们不会过多考虑。我们将稍微改变这一点，通过首先了解事物来理解系统。一旦我们做到了这一点，我们就会回过头来看看游戏和系统是如何结合在一起的。
With the understanding of the importance of recognizing, analyzing, and creating systems, we still need to more fully understand what systems are and how they operate. But to do this, we need to start from a different and more recognizable place: the world of things. This is the world we’re used to and probably don’t think about much. We’re going to change that a bit and come to comprehend systems by first understanding things. Once we’ve done that, we’ll come back to seeing how games and systems fit together.
奇怪的系统之旅
系统之于我们就像水之于鱼：在我们周围，创造着我们的世界，对我们的生存至关重要，但却很难被发现。我们大多没有意识到系统存在于我们的日常生活中，尽管就像水中的鱼一样，我们一直沉浸在其中。7
Systems are for us like water for fish: all around us, creating our world, vital to our existence, and difficult to see. Mostly we’re not aware that systems exist in our daily lives, though like the fish in water, we’re immersed in them all the time.7
忒修斯之船
首先，希腊传说中有一个经常被当作悖论来讲述的古老故事。这个故事是关于忒修斯之船的。忒修斯似乎是一名水手和造船师。他拥有一艘定期保养的船。每当他看到木板或其他部件开始磨损时，他就会将其拆下并更换。多年来，他最终更换了船的每一个部件，直到原来的部件都已不复存在。现在的问题是：他拥有的船还是他的船吗？如果每个部件都被更换了，它还是同一艘旧船还是一艘全新的船？事物的身份，即“船性”，存在于何处？
To start with, there’s an old story from Greek legend often told as a paradox. It’s the story of Theseus’ ship. Theseus, it seems, is a sailor and shipbuilder. He owns a ship that he maintains regularly. Whenever he sees a board or some other part starting to wear out, he removes it and replaces it. Over the years, he eventually replaces every single piece of the ship until none of the original parts remained. Now the question: is the ship he has then still his ship? If every single piece had been replaced, is it the same old ship or an entirely new one? Where does the identity of the thing, the “ship-ness,” reside?
再来点更有趣的想法（由英国哲学家托马斯·霍布斯于 1655 年首次提出），假设海伦在海滩上靠近忒修斯，密切注视着他。每次忒修斯拆下船的一块零件扔掉换新的，海伦就会捡起旧的零件（它们仍然完好无损，因为忒修斯总是早早地把它们换掉）。她用这些零件造了另一艘船（见图1.10）。于是有一天，忒修斯用新零件替换了船上的最后一个旧零件。他退后一步欣赏现在已经完全翻新的船，撞到了海伦。她也退后一步欣赏她的杰作，因为她刚刚为她的船装上了最后一部分。
To add a further wrinkle (first suggested by English philosopher Thomas Hobbes in 1655), suppose Helen is on the beach near Theseus, watching him closely. Every time Theseus takes off a piece of his ship and tosses it away to be replaced, Helen picks up the old piece (they’re still in good shape because Theseus always replaces them early). With these, she builds another ship (see Figure 1.10). So one day, Theseus replaces the last old part on his ship with a new one. He steps back to admire his now completely refurbished ship and bumps into Helen. She’s just stepped back to admire her handiwork too, since she’s just added the final part to her ship.
问题是，哪一艘船是忒修斯的？他有两艘船还是根本没有船，或者一艘是他的，另一艘是海伦的？一艘船之所以成为船，其本质是什么？是什么赋予了它作为船的身份以及完整性和整体性？
The question is, which one is Theseus’ ship? Does he have two ships or no ship at all, or is one his and one Helen’s? What is the essential quality that makes a ship a ship? What is it that gives it its identity as a ship and its sense of integrity and wholeness?
这是一个困扰哲学家几千年的矛盾问题；你也可以想一想。我们将以一种新的方式回顾忒修斯和海伦以及忒修斯之船的身份问题。在此之前，我们将进行一段奇怪的旅程。
This is the kind of paradoxical question that has worried philosophers for millennia; you can think about it for a bit, too. We’ll return to Theseus and Helen and the question of the identity of Theseus’ ship with a new way to view the question. Before we do, we’re going to go on a bit of an odd journey.
我们将以全新的视角看待事物及其本质。这是一段奇特的旅程，它将带我们深入现实的最小层面，然后再回到我们的世界。这意味着首先深入研究我们已知的最小结构，直至原子，甚至是我们陌生的——但正如我们将看到的——原子内部的世界。从那里，我们将回到熟悉世界的尺度甚至更远。这可能会带来一些意想不到的结论，并可能改变你看待周围世界的方式。
We’re going to take a new look at things and what they actually are. This is a strange journey that will take us down to the very smallest levels of reality and then back up again to our world of things. This will mean first diving down to examine the smallest structures we know of, right down to atoms and even the unfamiliar—but, as we’ll see, entirely relevant—world inside the atom. From there we will come back up to the scale of the familiar world and beyond. This may lead to some unexpected conclusions and possibly change how you see the world around you.
以这种方式谈论事物的本质似乎有点绕弯子，无法开始谈论系统（更不用说游戏了），但重要的是，首先要了解事物是什么，然后才能理解系统的字面意义，而不是隐喻意义。如果你不是“科学人”，也不用担心；这不会太技术化。
Talking about the nature of things this way may seem like the long way around to start talking about systems (much less games), but it’s important to understand the literal rather than metaphorical reality of what systems are by first understanding what things are. And if you’re not a “science person,” don’t worry; this won’t get too technical.
事物与身份
那么，是什么让一个事物成为事物？什么是物质？这些问题可能看起来简单（甚至有点愚蠢）。毕竟，这似乎是显而易见的：事物就是你能看到或触摸到的东西；它们有质量、重量和实质。你可以拿起一支笔，用指关节敲击桌子，或者喝一杯水。至少宏观事物似乎表现得相当好。但真正的结构是什么？内部是什么让事物成为事物？向下移动到微观世界，我们知道这最终会将我们从分子和原子的尺度上引出。这就是我们的起点。
So what makes a thing a thing? What is stuff? These may seem like simple (or even silly) questions. After all, this seems obvious: things are what you can see or touch; they have mass, heft, and substance. You can pick up a pen, rap your knuckles on a desk, or drink a glass of water. At least macroscopic things seem to be pretty well behaved as things. But what’s the real structure? What’s inside that makes a thing a thing? Moving down in scale to the microscopic world, we understand that this eventually leads us down in scale to molecules and atoms. That’s where we’ll start.
让我们来看看水。你可能知道，它是最常见的物质之一，由含有两个氢原子和一个氧原子的小分子组成，通常如图1.11所示。但是，如果你停下来想一想，这三个原子看起来并不像你所知道的水。是什么让这些氢和氧具有水的性质——像液体一样晃动、冻结成透明的冰或在天空中形成云朵？
Let’s look at water. As you probably know, it’s one of the most common substances there is, made of small molecules containing two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen, often depicted as shown in Figure 1.11. If you stop to think about it, though, those three atoms don’t look like what you know as water. What is it that enables these hydrogens and oxygens to have the properties of water—to slosh around as a liquid, freeze as clear ice, or form clouds in the sky?
这个问题需要我们系统地思考才能回答。我们将在回溯到更大规模的过程中再来讨论这个问题。现在让我们把范围再缩小一点，深入到每个水分子中存在的氢原子。
That’s a question that will require us to think in systems to answer. We’ll come back to it on our way back up in scale. For now let’s go even smaller, into the hydrogen atoms that exist as part of every molecule of water.
氢原子是最小的原子。它由一个质子和一个电子组成。但是电子和质子太小，以至于原子几乎完全是空的。具体来说，“几乎完全是空的”意味着原子 99.9999999999996% 是空的。这不是近似值，而是化学家和物理学家经过艰苦努力计算得出的数字。
Hydrogen is the smallest atom. It consists of a single proton surrounded by a single electron. But the electron and proton are so small that the atom is almost entirely empty. Specifically, “almost entirely empty” means the atom is 99.9999999999996% empty. That’s not an approximation but a figure chemists and physicists have worked very hard to calculate.
图 1.11通常描绘的水分子：两个小氢原子和一个较大的氧原子
Figure 1.11 A water molecule as commonly depicted: two small hydrogen atoms and one larger oxygen
因此，氢原子几乎完全是空的——什么都没有。那个空旷的空间不是由空气填充的，而只是空旷的空间。在如此空旷的空间里，很难看出一个原子能有什么作用。为了更直观地了解，想象一个微小的东西——可能是一粒胡椒粒或一支气枪里的 BB 弹，直径约 2 毫米，放在一个大型专业体育场的中央，在一个足球场的中央。胡椒粒是氢原子核心的质子，体育场大约是氢原子的体积，约为质子的 60,000 倍。这颗小种子周围其余的体积，周围有一个体育场的大小，是完全空的——没有空气，没有任何东西，只有空虚。这些加在一起形成了氢原子。氢也是迄今为止宇宙中最常见的元素。它约占所有元素物质的 74%，而你体内的氢原子约占你体重的 10%。
So a hydrogen atom is almost entirely empty—made of nothing at all. That empty space isn’t filled with air but just empty space. With that much emptiness, it’s difficult to see how an atom amounts to anything. To give that some scale, imagine something tiny—maybe a peppercorn or a BB from an air gun, about 2 mm across, sitting in the middle of a big professional sports stadium, in the middle of a football field. The peppercorn is the proton at the heart of the hydrogen atom, and the stadium is the approximate volume of the hydrogen atom, about 60,000 times the size of the proton. All the rest of the volume around the tiny seed, the size of a sports stadium all around it, is completely empty—no air, no nothing, just emptiness. Together, these form the hydrogen atom. Hydrogen is also by far the most common element in the universe. It makes up about 74% of all elemental matter, and the hydrogen atoms inside you account for about 10% of your body weight.
但是，一个如此接近于完全空无的东西，怎么会同时包含如此多的东西呢？它怎么能解释你和其他事物的如此大的质量？原子中的电子只贡献了其物质的极小部分（约占氢原子本来就很小的质量的 0.05%），因此绝大多数质量（超过 99%）来自其无限核心处的微小质子。
But how can something that is so close to being completely empty—completely nothing—also be so much of everything? How can it account for so much of the mass of you and other things? The electron in the atom contributes only a miniscule amount of its substance (about 0.05% of the hydrogen atom’s already tiny mass), so the vast majority of the mass, more than 99%, comes from the tiny proton at its infinitesimal heart.
现在，故事开始变得有点奇怪了。我们经常在教科书中看到将原子描绘成小球的图片，如图1.11所示。在这些球体中，组成原子核的质子和中子通常看起来是更小的球体，是原子核心中的小硬块。这是一种方便的观点，但也使我们完全偏离了现实（事物和系统）的实际运作方式。
Now, here is where the story starts to become a little weird. We often see pictures in textbooks that show atoms as little spheres, like in Figure 1.11. Within these spheres the protons and neutrons that make up the atomic nuclei typically appear as even smaller spheres, little hard nuggets of reality at the heart of the atom. It’s a convenient view, but one that also leads us completely astray from how reality—things and systems—actually work.
原子不是小球。电子不会沿着干净的轨道运行，原子周围也没有明确的球形包裹物。氢原子中电子的性质比我们在这里需要深入研究的要复杂得多，但事实是，更准确地说，原子有一个模糊的、朦胧的边界区域，由电子所在的位置定义——就几乎完全不存在的任何东西来说，根本就没有边界！
Atoms aren’t little balls. Electrons don’t orbit in clean paths, and there is no defined spherical wrapper around the atom. The nature of an electron in a hydrogen atom is more complex than we need to dig into here, but the fact is that it’s more accurate to think of the atom as having a fuzzy, nebulous border region defined by where the electron can be found—insofar as anything that is almost entirely nothing can have a boundary at all!
氢原子的中心是质子。我们经常把质子想象成一个坚硬的小球，是一小块必不可少的固体物质。质子占氢原子质量的 99.95% 以上，但就像原子本身一样，它实际上并不是一小块浓缩的物质。为了真正弄清事物的本质，我们需要继续我们的旅程，深入原子中心的质子，看看它能告诉我们什么。
At the center of the hydrogen atom is its proton. This too is something we often envision as being a hard little sphere, an essential if tiny bit of solid stuff. This is what makes up over 99.95% of the mass of the hydrogen atom, and yet, just like the atom itself, it’s not actually anything like a concentrated little lump of anything. In order to really find out what things are, we need to continue our journey to dip into the proton at the atom’s heart and see what that tells us.
质子是原子核的两个主要部分之一，另一个（在比简单氢重的原子中）是中子。这两个部分加在一起构成了原子的几乎所有质量，而原子加起来就是我们所体验到的所有质量和坚固性。它们对于事物之所以为事物至关重要，就像我们体验到它们的实质和重量一样。虽然质子和中子是必需的，但它们并不是基本粒子：事实证明，它们是由更小的粒子夸克组成的。据我们所知，夸克是没有内部结构的基本粒子，它们在很多方面都像它们的名字所暗示的那样奇怪。
Protons are one of the two main parts of the atomic nucleus, the other (in atoms heavier than simple hydrogen) being the neutron. Together these are responsible for very nearly all of the mass of the atom, and atoms add up to being all the mass and solidity we experience. They are essential to things being things as we experience them with substance and heft. While protons and neutrons are essential, they are not fundamental: it turns out that they are made up of even smaller particles called quarks. As far as we know, quarks are fundamental particles with no internal structure, and they are in many ways as strange as their name implies.
人们通常认为质子由三个夸克组成。8这些夸克并不在质子“内部”，而是质子。这可能有点令人困惑，但请记住，质子没有包裹物或球形结构来隐藏夸克。从更详细的角度来看，夸克就是质子。这实际上是一个非常重要的概念，我们稍后会回顾。
It’s often taught that a proton is made of three quarks.8 These quarks aren’t “inside” the proton; they are the proton. That may be a bit confusing, but remember that the proton doesn’t have a wrapper or spherical shape hiding quarks inside it. The quarks are simply what the proton is when viewed in more detail. This is actually a very important concept that we’ll return to in a moment.
组成质子（或中子）的每个夸克都有一点质量，但奇怪的是，这三个夸克的质量加起来只占我们测量质子质量时发现的总质量的 1% 左右。但如果夸克就是质子，那怎么可能呢？其余的质量从何而来？
Each of the quarks that make up a proton (or neutron) has a little bit of mass, though strangely the amount of mass of all three put together amounts to only about 1% of the total mass we find when we measure the mass of the proton. But if the quarks are the proton, how is that possible? Where does the rest of the mass come from?
您之前看到，我们需要抛弃原子甚至质子是坚硬的小物质球这一方便的想法。原子是“模糊的”，并且大部分由虚无构成。可以说质子具有大小和形状，尽管它们最好也被描述为模糊的（或更准确地说，在一定范围内不确定）。正如原子的大小和形状来自其电子所在的体积一样，质子的大小和形状来自其夸克所在的体积。
You saw earlier that we need to discard the convenient idea that atoms or even protons are hard little balls of matter. Atoms are “fuzzy” and made mostly of nothing. Protons can be said to have a size and shape, though they too are best described as fuzzy (or indeterminate within bounds, to be more precise). Just as the atom gets its size and shape from the volume where its electrons may be found, the proton’s size and shape come from where its quarks may be found.
组成质子的三个夸克彼此紧密结合：它们在非常非常小的空间内（约 0.85 × 10 -15米，或不到十亿分之一米的百万分之一）快速移动，彼此之间相距甚远。但在这种小尺度上，物理学的运作方式与我们习惯的不同，甚至我们所看到的物质和能量之间的差异也基本消失。（幸运的是，爱因斯坦的简洁方程E = mc 2使我们和亚原子粒子能够轻松地从一种物质转换为另一种物质。）除了三个结合夸克的能量外，在同样非常小的体积中，还有无数对夸克和反夸克总是突然出现和消失。这些对几乎瞬间出现和消失，从无到有，但仍然将它们的能量添加到质子中。这基于这些小能量喷发之间的关系，在非常小的空间中创造了一个稳定但不断变化的环境。
The three quarks that make up the proton are tightly bound to each other: they zoom around in a very, very small space (about 0.85 × 10-15 meters, or less than one-millionth of a billionth of a meter) and never get very far from each other. But at this small scale, physics operates differently than we’re used to, and even the difference that we see between matter and energy essentially vanishes. (Fortunately, Einstein’s succinct equation E = mc2 allows us, and subatomic particles, to convert from one to the other easily.) In addition to the energy of the three bound quarks, in the same very small volume, there are innumerable pairs of quarks and anti-quarks always popping in and out of existence. These pairs appear and disappear almost instantly, out of nothing and into nothing but nevertheless adding their energy to the proton. This creates a stable but constantly changing environment in a very small space, based on the relationships between these small eruptions of energy.
这意味着夸克的动能、它们之间的结合关系（物理学中称为“胶子场”）以及在它们周围进出的虚夸克对的瞬时但持续不断的嘶嘶声的存在，共同创造了它们总体可观测质量的另外 99%——稳定但总是在变化的粒子，我们称之为质子和中子。听起来可能很奇怪，但这正是事物存在的根源。它构成了你周围的一切，你见过或触摸过的一切。尽管我们通常体验到坚固和稳定，但正如 Simler (2014) 恰如其分地指出的那样，日常事物实际上“不像桌子，更像龙卷风”。以这种方式理解事物也将帮助我们更清楚地理解系统是什么。
What this means is that the combination of the kinetic energy of the quarks and their binding relationship to each other (known in physics as the “gluon field”) and the momentary but continually fizzing existence of the virtual quark pairs popping in and out around them, altogether create the other 99% of the observed mass of their aggregate whole—the stable-but-always-changing particles that we call protons and neutrons. Strange as it sounds, this is the root of what things are. This is what makes up everything around you, everything you’ve ever seen or touched. Despite our typical experience of solidity and stability, everyday things are actually “less like a table, more like a tornado” as Simler (2014) aptly noted. Understanding things this way will also help us understand more clearly what systems are.
看看夸克和它们组成的质子，我们可以看出，从最根本上讲，事物（无论是原子还是飞船）都不是我们所认为的那样：它们实际上并不是定义明确、有基本界限、独立存在、与其他一切截然不同的物体。从现实的最小层面来看，它们并不像物质的小块。它们是能量、力量和关系。虽然一开始可能很难理解，但让质子和其他一切存在的关系网络正是我们认为的游戏设计核心元素。
Looking at quarks and the protons they make up, we can see that at their most essential, things (whether atoms or ships) aren’t what we typically consider them to be: they aren’t in fact well-defined, primly bounded objects that stand on their own, clearly separate from everything else. At the smallest levels of reality, they aren’t anything like little nuggets of matter. They’re energy, forces, and relationships. As difficult as it may be to understand at first, the networks of relationships that allow protons and everything else to exist are the same kinds that we see as the core elements of game design.
回到质子和中子，它们的存在是因为夸克之间存在着能量稳定但总是在变化的关系。夸克本身就是一种稳定但总是在变化的效应（可能是时空多维度中的波，但这是另一个话题）。三个束缚夸克和无数“虚拟”（真实但寿命极短）的夸克对在空间和时间中相互关联，构成了稳定但总是在变化的质子和中子。原子核（包含质子和中子）和电子也是如此：正是通过它们之间的关系，它们才成为稳定但总是在变化的原子。
Going back to protons and neutrons for a moment, these exist because of the energetic stable-but-always-changing relationships between quarks. A quark itself is a stable-but-always-changing effect (possibly a wave in the multiple dimensions of space–time, but that’s another discussion). Together, three bound quarks and zillions of “virtual” (real but very-short-lived) pairs of quarks are related to each other in space and time in a way that makes up stable-but-always-changing protons and neutrons. The same is true of atomic nuclei (containing protons and neutrons) and electrons: it is by the relationships between them that they become stable-but-always-changing atoms.
亚稳态与协同作用
这种稳定但总是在变化的概念被称为亚稳态。亚稳态的东西通常以稳定的形式存在于时间中，但在较低的组织水平上总是在变化。9外表稳定的质子实际上是下一个较低组织水平上的一大群较小粒子。同样，原子本身是稳定的，但内部是由亚稳态结构是原子核和电子之间不断变化的关系的结果。除了质子和原子，还有许多其他亚稳态结构的例子，例如一群鸟、一场飓风或一股水流。我们稍后会研究更多此类结构。
This concept of stable-but-always-changing is called metastability. Something that is metastable exists in a stable form across time (typically) but is nevertheless always changing at a lower level of organization.9 The outwardly stable proton is actually a teeming swarm of smaller particles at the next lower level of organization. Likewise, the atom is stable in itself but inside is made from the constantly changing relationships between its nucleus and its electrons. In addition to protons and atoms, there are many other examples of metastable structures, such as a flock of birds, a hurricane, or a stream of water. We will examine more of these shortly.
继续从亚原子领域往上追溯，正如原子是亚稳态结构一样，分子也是亚稳态结构。我们之前看到的简单水分子就像质子或原子一样，都是一个东西。它也是亚稳态的，因为分子内的原子会发生变化，在它们之间共享电子，并改变它们相对于彼此的位置。10
To continue our climb back up from the subatomic realm, just as an atom is a metastable structure, so too is a molecule. The simple molecule of water we looked at earlier is a thing every bit as much as a proton or an atom is a thing. It, too, is metastable, as the atoms within the molecule undergo changes, sharing electrons between them and changing their positions relative to each other.10
正如氢原子由质子和电子组成，水分子由两个氢原子和一个氧原子组成。水分子并不“包含”这些原子，它只是这些原子而已。然而，虽然水分子周围没有外壳或硬边界，但在考虑水分子相互作用的方式时，将它们视为比原子“高一级”的组织往往是有道理的。
Just as a hydrogen atom is made up of a proton and an electron, a water molecule is made up of two hydrogens and one oxygen atom. The water molecule doesn’t “contain” these, it simply is these. And yet, while there’s no skin or hard boundary around it, when considering the ways in which water molecules interact with each other, it often makes sense to think of them as being “one level up” in organization from their atoms.
也就是说，水分子的存在是因为组成它的原子之间的协同关系，就像氢原子的存在是因为质子和电子之间的协同作用，质子的存在是因为夸克之间的协同作用一样。协同作用这个词的意思是“共同努力”。近几十年来，这个词已在许多场合使用，尤其是在商业领域，但最初是由巴克敏斯特·富勒带入现代用法的，他将其描述为“整个系统的行为无法通过其各部分单独行为进行预测”（Fuller 1975）。这是描述亚稳态的另一种方式，即一些新的东西从较低组织层次的各部分的组合中产生，通常会导致各部分本身不具有的属性。与质子和原子一样，分子在其组织层次上具有稳定性和完整性的特质：它不能被分割，否则会改变其本质。
That is, the water molecule exists because of the synergistic relationship between the atoms that constitute it, just as the hydrogen atom exists because of the synergy between the proton and electron, and the proton exists because of the synergy between quarks. The word synergy means “working together.” It has been used in many contexts in recent decades, especially in business, but was originally brought into modern usage by Buckminster Fuller, who described it as “behavior of whole systems unpredicted by the behavior of their parts taken separately” (Fuller 1975). This is another way of describing metastability, where some new thing arises from the combination of parts at a lower level of organization, often resulting in properties not found in the parts themselves. Like the proton and the atom, the molecule at its level of organization possesses the qualities of stability and integrity: it cannot be divided without changing its essential nature.
系统是具有自身属性的亚稳态事物，并且其中包含其他较低级别的亚稳态事物，这一观点是系统思维和游戏设计的关键点之一。当我们讨论涌现现象时，我们将再次看到这一点。
The idea that systems are metastable things with their own properties and that they contain other, lower-level metastable things within them is one of the key points to understand for both systems thinking and game design. We will see this again when we discuss the phenomenon of emergence.
水分子是具有自身特性的物质，可以被认为是块状球体，形状更像土豆而不是橙子（如图1.12所示）。这种块状形状是由组成水分子的氧原子和氢原子之间的关系形成的
As things with their own identity, water molecules can be thought of as somewhat lumpy spheres, more like a potato than an orange in shape (as shown in Figure 1.12). This lumpy shape is made from the relationships between the constituent oxygen and hydrogen atoms
分子中原子之间的关系决定了分子的亚稳态及其整体电属性。质子和中子内的夸克决定了它们各自的电荷，11而氢原子和氧原子中的质子和电子决定了水分子的总电荷。氧原子部分地将电子从氢原子上拉下来，有点像从可怜的氢原子上偷走盖子。这使得组成氢原子核的质子在一定程度上暴露在外，并使分子的块状端带有部分正电荷。同样，分子的另一侧，最靠近氧、远离氢的一侧，会带上大约 10 倍的负电荷，因为氢的电子现在有一部分时间与氧在一起。
The relationships between the atoms in a molecule govern the metastability of the molecule and its overall electrical attributes. The quarks inside the proton and neutron determine their respective electrical charges,11 and the protons and electrons in the hydrogen and oxygen atoms determine the water molecule’s overall charge. The oxygen atom partially pulls the electrons off the hydrogen atoms, sort of like stealing the covers from the poor hydrogens. This leaves the protons that make up the nuclei of the hydrogen atom somewhat exposed and gives their lumpy end of the molecule a partial positive charge. In the same way, the other side of the molecule, closest to the oxygen and away from the hydrogens, takes on about 10 times more of a negative electrical charge as the hydrogens’ electrons now spend some of their time by the oxygen.
因此，水分子作为一个整体，具有电极性，有些部分带正电，有些部分带负电。了解这一点，以及了解事物是如何在较低层次的组织中由成分之间的关系构成的，使我们能够回答水分子是如何变成我们所认识的水的问题。DH Lawrence（1972 年，第 515 页）在他的诗《第三件事》中写到了这一点：
As a result, the water molecule as a whole, as a thing, has electrical polarity, with some parts more positive and some parts more negative. Understanding this—and understanding how things are built out of the relationships between components at a lower level of organization—allows us to answer the question of how it is that water molecules become the water we recognize. D. H. Lawrence (1972, p. 515) wrote about this in his poem “The Third Thing”:
水是由 H2O 、两部分氢和一部分氧组成的，但还有第三种物质，使水变成水，但没人知道那是什么。
Water is H2O, hydrogen two parts, oxygen one, but there is also a third thing, that makes it waterand nobody knows what that is.
这个“第三件事”是本次讨论的核心。这是亚里士多德在 2000 多年前想到的独立存在的整体，斯穆茨和考夫卡在 20 世纪初在他们的领域中也呼应了这一观点。这个“第三件事”至关重要，但它不是一个独立的元素或对象：它是从我们在较低层次上已知的事物之间的关系中产生的整体，在较高层次上创造出新的独立事物。再次引用劳伦斯的话，他在 1915 年的小说《彩虹》中在不同语境中说了几乎同样的话，他写道：
This “third thing” is at the heart of this discussion. This is the independently existing whole that Aristotle thought of more than 2,000 years ago, echoed by Smuts and Koffka in their fields in the early 20th century. This “third thing” is vitally important, but it’s not a separate element or object: it is the whole that arises out of the relationships between the things we already know about from a lower level, creating a new independent thing at a higher level. To quote Lawrence again, saying virtually the same thing in a different context, in his 1915 novel The Rainbow, he writes:
两个人之间，爱情本身才是最重要的，那既不是你也不是他，而是你必须创造的第三者。
Between two peoples, the love itself is the important thing, and that is neither you nor him. It is a third thing you must create.
这种从低级成分关系中产生的“第三种东西”使得原子、水、爱、互动、游戏、生命等一切事物成为可能。以水为例，当 H 2 O 分子形成松散但亚稳态的簇时，这些簇开始相互滑过。当这种情况发生时，大量的这些分子和簇开始呈现出我们所知的液态水的流动性 - 这些性质在分子或原子中并不存在，而是从组成部分之间的关系中产生的全新性质。
This creation of a “third thing” that emerges from the relationship of lower-level components is what makes everything—atoms, water, love, interactivity, games, life—possible. In the case of water, as H2O molecules form loose but metastable clusters, these groups begin to slide past each other. As this happens, large number of these molecules and clusters begin to take on the properties of fluidity that we recognize as being liquid water—properties not found in the molecules or their atoms but that arise as entirely new from the relationships between the constituent parts.
当我们从观察分子转向观察我们周围可见的事物时，亚稳态结构随处可见。继续以水为例——无论是一滴、一条溪流还是一波——它都会在更大的组织层面上产生额外的亚稳态结构。请记住，水分子非常小。它们比我们之前讨论过的质子大数千倍，但仍然小得难以想象。12因此，从睫毛末端的一滴水到最大的飓风，任何东西都是水形成的众多亚稳态结构之一。
As we move back up in scale from looking at molecules to looking at things we can see around us, metastable structures are evident all around. Continuing with water as an example—whether in a drop, a stream, or a wave—it creates additional metastable structures at much larger levels of organization. Keep in mind that water molecules are very small. They’re many thousands of times bigger than the protons we talked about earlier but still unimaginably small.12 So anything from a drop of water that hangs on the end of your eyelash to the largest hurricane is one of many metastable structures formed by water.
回到我们开始的地方
就事物而言，就是这样：你所知道的一切“事物”都是由其中较小组成部分之间的关系构成的。每个组成部分都是其子部分的亚稳态层次，一直到宇宙的基本基底，夸克/反夸克对不断出现和消失，在此过程中产生质子和中子（以及它们的质量——以及你的质量）。
As far as things go, that’s it: everything you know as a “thing” is made out of the relationships between smaller components within them. Each component is a metastable level of hierarchy of its subparts, all the way down to the fundamental sub-basement of the universe, where quark/anti-quark pairs continually fizz in and out of existence, creating protons and neutrons (and their mass—and your mass) in the process.
理解了这一点，我们就可以回到起点。现在我们可以再看看忒修斯和海伦以及他们的船。正如质子、原子和分子都是亚稳态结构一样，船也是如此：船不仅仅是一堆木板；它是这些木板之间的协同关系，它们存在于特定的亚稳态关系中彼此之间。因此，如果忒修斯拆下一块木板，换上一块新木板，他改变的不仅是那个物理部件，更重要的是，他改变了它与船上所有其他物理部件的关系。他从船的系统中拆下了木板，但船本身还在（只要它保留了足够多的部件，以保持其亚稳态并能作为船正常运转）。就海伦而言，她通过逐渐与旧部件建立新的关系，创造了一种新的亚稳态结构，即一艘新船。重要的是要记住，正如我们之前所说，两个氢原子和一个氧原子不在水分子“内部”，木板也不在船的“内部”：它们彼此之间的关系构成了船本身。
Understanding this enables us to go back to where we started. We can now take another look at Theseus and Helen and their ships. Just as a proton, an atom, and a molecule are all metastable structures, so too is a ship: a ship isn’t just a bunch of planks of wood; it’s the synergistic relationships between those planks, and they exist in a particular metastable relationship to each other. So if Theseus removes a plank and replaces it with a new one, he has changed not only that one physical component but even, more importantly, its relationship to all the other physical components in the ship. He has removed the plank from the system that is the ship, but the ship itself remains (as long as it retains enough components to retain its metastability and function as a ship). For her part, Helen has created a new metastable structure, a new ship, by gradually creating new relationships with old parts. It’s important to remember that just as we said earlier that the two hydrogen and one oxygen atoms aren’t “inside” the water molecule, the planks aren’t “inside” the ship: they are, by virtue of their relationship to each other, what creates the ship as a thing itself.
回到游戏设计的世界，对事物如何产生的理解——特别是在创建新的、更高级的系统（和事物）时关系和互动的重要性——将帮助我们设计出更系统、最终更令人满意的游戏。
To return all the way to the world of game design for a moment, this understanding of how things come about—and in particular the importance of relationships and interactions in creating new, higher-level systems (and things)—will help us design more systemic and, ultimately, more satisfying games.
砖块和房屋、图案和品质
Bricks and Houses, Patterns, and Qualities
哲学家和科学家亨利·庞加莱 (Henri Poincaré) (1901) 说过：“科学是由事实构成的，就像房子是由砖块构成的一样；但事实的积累并不等于科学，就像一堆砖块不等于房子一样。” 回想一下亚里士多德的陈述：“万物由多个部分组成，整体并不是一堆堆东西，而是除了部分之外还有某种东西，所以事物都有原因。”他所说的原因是事物之间的结构和功能关系。就庞加莱所描述的房子而言，原因是砖块及其关系——它们的位置、物理性和相互支撑。这就是它与“一堆堆东西”的区别，并创造了我们称之为房屋的有组织的系统，就像事实之间的结构和功能关系创造了有组织的理论和模型，构成了我们所说的科学。没有这些超越元素本身的元素间效应，就没有房子，也没有科学。
The philosopher and scientist Henri Poincaré (1901) said that “science is built of facts the way a house is built of bricks; but an accumulation of facts is no more science than a pile of bricks is a house.” Recall too Aristotle’s statement that “in the case of all things which have several parts and in which the totality is not, as it were, a mere heap, but the whole is something beside the parts, there is a cause.” The cause he speaks of is the structural and functional relationship between things. In the case of the house described by Poincaré, it is the bricks and their relationships—their position, physicality, and support for each other. This is what separates it from “a mere heap” and creates the organized system we call a house, just as the structural and functional relations between facts that create organized theory and models constitute what we call science. Without these inter-elemental effects that transcend the elements themselves, there is no house, and there is no science.
对此的补充是另外两个观察，均来自建筑师 Christopher Alexander。第一个来自他的书《模式语言》。这是一本关于物理建筑的书——城镇、房屋、花园和角落。除此之外，这本书及其原则极大地影响了一代又一代的软件工程师和游戏设计师。每当你听到有人谈论设计模式时，无论他们是否知道，他们都在指这本开创性的书中的工作。亚历山大的方法是完全系统化的。从这个角度考虑前面关于水分子、夸克和船舶的讨论：
Complementing this are two more observations, both from architect Christopher Alexander. The first is from his book A Pattern Language. This is a book about physical architecture—towns, houses, gardens, and nooks. Beyond that, this book and its principles have greatly influenced generations of software engineers and game designers. Whenever you hear someone talking about a design pattern, whether they know it or not, they are referring to the work in this seminal book. Alexander’s approach is entirely systemic. Consider the preceding discussion about water molecules, quarks, and ships in this light:
简而言之，没有一种模式是孤立的。每种模式只有在得到其他模式的支持下才能存在于世界上：它所嵌入的较大模式、围绕它的相同大小的模式以及嵌入它的较小模式。
In short, no pattern is an isolated entity. Each pattern can exist in the world, only to the extent that it is supported by other patterns: the larger patterns in which it is embedded, the patterns of the same size that surround it, and the smaller patterns which are embedded in it.
这是对世界的基本看法。它说，当你建造一个东西时，你不能孤立地建造它，而必须修复它周围的世界和它内部的世界，这样更大的世界才能一个地方变得更加连贯，更加完整；你制造的东西在自然之网中占据一席之地，就像你制造它一样。（Alexander 等人，1977 年，第 xiii 页）
This is a fundamental view of the world. It says that when you build a thing you cannot merely build that thing in isolation, but must repair the world around it, and within it, so that the larger world at the one place becomes more coherent, and more whole; and the thing which you make takes its place in the web of nature, as you make it. (Alexander et al. 1977, p. xiii)
亚历山大说的是“模式”，而我们会说“系统”。模式的基本整体模式是，这种系统组织存在于现实世界中，从夸克到飓风（以及宇宙中难以想象的巨大结构）；存在于家庭、厨房和城市的建筑中；甚至存在于游戏中作为设计体验中。
Where Alexander says “pattern,” we would say “system.” The essential overall pattern-of-patterns is that this systemic organization exists in the real world from quarks to hurricanes (and onward to the unimaginably immense structures in the universe); in creating the architecture of homes and kitchens and cities; and even in games as designed experiences.
第二个想法来自亚历山大的书《永恒的建筑之道》，这本书是《模式语言》的哲学伴侣。在这本书中，亚历山大介绍了他所谓的“无名品质”，他认为这种品质必须融入所有建筑乃至任何设计中。这种品质包括“一元性”、动态和谐、力量之间的平衡，以及由相互支持和补充的嵌套模式产生的统一性。总之，亚历山大断言，作为包含这些子模式的统一模式，它不能包含在一个名称中。正如亚历山大所说，
The second thought is from Alexander’s book The Timeless Way of Building, a somewhat more philosophical companion to A Pattern Language. In this book, Alexander introduces what he calls the “quality without a name” that he believes must be infused in all architecture and indeed in anything designed. This quality includes “oneness,” dynamic harmony, balance between forces, and a unity arising out of nested patterns that support and complement each other. Taken together, Alexander asserts that as a unified pattern containing these subpatterns, it cannot be contained in a name. As Alexander says,
当系统与自身合一时，它就具有这种品质；当系统分裂时，它就缺乏这种品质。……这种统一性或缺乏统一性是任何事物的基本品质。无论是在一首诗中，还是在一个人中，还是在一座挤满人的建筑物中，还是在一片森林中，还是在一座城市中，所有重要的东西都源于它。它体现了一切。然而，这种品质仍然无法命名。（亚历山大 1979 年，第 28 页）
A system has this quality when it is at one with itself; it lacks it when it is divided.…This oneness, or the lack of it, is the fundamental quality for anything. Whether it is in a poem, or a man, or a building full of people, or in a forest, or a city, everything that matters stems from it. It embodies everything. Yet still this quality cannot be named. (Alexander 1979, p. 28)
亚历山大的“无名品质”与亚里士多德在有组织的系统中发现的未命名“原因”以及劳伦斯使水变湿的“第三事物”产生了共鸣。它没有名字，也许是因为命名也会在我们的脑海中将其扁平化，将我们的视角从复杂、动态的模式模式转变为稳定、惰性事物的还原论视角。根据我们现在的理解，我们可以将此称为某个事物或过程的系统性品质。我们将在第 2 章“定义系统”中更准确地定义它。
Alexander’s “quality without a name” resonates with Aristotle’s unnamed “cause” found in an organized system and with Lawrence’s “third thing” that makes water wet. It has had no name, perhaps, because naming it also flattens it in our minds, moving our perspective from that of a complex, dynamic pattern-of-patterns to a reductionist view of a stable, inert thing. With the understanding we have now, we can refer to this as the quality of some thing or process being systemic. We will define this more precisely in Chapter 2, “Defining Systems.”
进入系统
Onward to Systems
系统视角至关重要：你必须学会在看似静止的桌子上看到动画龙卷风，并看到我们自己设计中的动态过程。从游戏设计的角度来看，你必须学会看到整个体验，即玩游戏的过程，同时理解每个玩家都会有一条独特的体验路径。同时，作为一名游戏设计师，你必须能够“放大”并指定游戏的每个单独部分，而不需要将其分解为游戏状态空间中的一条路径。
The systemic perspective is crucial: you must learn to see the animated tornado in the apparently motionless table and to see the dynamic processes in our own designs. In game design terms, you must learn to see the totality of the experience, the game as played, while understanding that each player will have a unique experiential path through it. At the same time, as a game designer, you must be able to “zoom in” and specify each individual piece of the game without requiring that this collapses down into a single path through the state-space of the game.
牢记这些，不屈服于过于整体的模糊性思维，也不屈服于贪婪的还原论思维的线性，你将能够系统地看待世界。通过这样做，你将能够理解和认识到这种未命名、未扁平的系统、协同、亚稳态、新兴的品质——然后努力将其纳入你的创意设计中。
Keeping all this in mind, not giving in to the vagueness of overly holistic thinking nor the linearity of greedy reductionist thinking, you will be able to see the world systemically. By doing so, you will be able to understand and recognize this unnamed, unflattened systemic, synergistic, metastable, emergent quality—and then work to include it in your creative designs.
考虑到这一点，您现在可以更全面地了解系统的定义，以及为什么在游戏设计中识别、思考和有意使用系统如此重要。
With this in mind, you are now in a position to examine a more comprehensive definition of what a system is and why it’s important to be able to recognize, think about, and intentionally use systems in designing games.
概括
Summary
在本章中，您了解了观察世界的不同方式，以及将世界视为系统的重要性。您已经开始将系统理解为相互关联的部分组成的网络，这些部分构成了亚稳态整体。
In this chapter you have learned about different ways of viewing the world and about the importance of seeing the world as systems. You have started down the path to understanding systems as networks of interrelated parts that create metastable wholes.
这种系统观对于理解世界如何运作、将你周围的平凡事物视为充满活力的系统以及创造引人入胜的游戏至关重要。有了对系统如何构成世界的更深理解，你现在可以更准确地定义系统了。这将使你能够将系统的术语和理解运用到游戏设计中。
This systems view is vital for understanding how the world works, for seeing mundane things all around you as vibrant systems, and for creating engaging games. With this deeper understanding of how systems make up the world, you are now prepared to define systems more precisely. This will enable you to bring the terminology and comprehension of systems to bear on game design.
1.这里使用的“现象学思维”一词就是在这个意义上，而不是像康德、黑格尔或胡塞尔等后期哲学家那样，是指对世界的理解以及由此产生的对世界意识的研究。
1. It is in this sense that the term phenomenological thinking is used here, rather than in the sense used by later philosophers such as Kant, Hegel, or Husserl, in terms of the apprehension of the world and the resulting study of consciousness of the world.
2.这无疑是对科学运作方式的理想主义看法。科学家也是人，他们倾向于过久地坚持自己喜欢的想法，而过快地否定其他想法。人们早就说过“科学的大多数进步都是在葬礼上取得的”，这意味着有时老一辈的科学家必须退休或去世，这样新的想法才能得到应有的关注。托马斯·库恩 (1962) 首次推广的“范式转变”理念对于理解科学的实际运作方式至关重要。它对于理解思维方式的总体变化也很重要，但即使对于这本概括性游戏设计书来说，更长的讨论可能也有点太过遥远了！
2. This is admittedly an idealistic view of how science works. Scientists, being humans, tend to hang on to ideas they like too long and dismiss others too quickly. It has long been said that “the most progress in science is made at funerals,” meaning that sometimes the old guard of scientists have to retire or die off so that new ideas can get the attention they deserve. The idea of “paradigm shifts,” first popularized by Thomas Kuhn (1962), is central to this understanding of how science actually works. It’s important in understanding how ways of thinking change in general, too, but a longer discussion may be a little far afield even for this synoptic game design book!
3.从文化角度来看，美国人可能比其他人更具有这种特征。许多年前，一位挪威记者告诉我，在他看来，美国人与其他人的不同之处在于“你们相信每个问题都有解决办法”。当时，我对此感到困惑。我当时想，“与什么相反？”（Sellers，2012）。
3. This might be culturally true of Americans more than others. Many years ago, a Norwegian journalist told me that in his view, what makes Americans different from others is that “you believe there is a solution to every problem.” At the time, I was baffled by this. My thought was, “As opposed to what?” (Sellers, 2012).
4.格式塔是德语单词，意为“形式”或“形状”。这一心理学分支研究我们看到的形状的整体方面，即使只有形状的一部分在视觉上呈现，我们也会用我们的思维来完成这些形状。
4. Gestalt is a German word meaning “form” or “shape.” This branch of psychology studies the holistic aspects of shapes that we see and complete with our minds even when only part of the shape is visually present.
5.维纳创造的“控制论”一词也在某种程度上错误地导致了使用“网络”前缀来指代 20 世纪后期尤为流行的尖端技术或信息技术。
5. Wiener’s coinage of cybernetics is also what led, somewhat mistakenly, to the use of the cyber-prefix referring to cutting edge or information technologies that was especially popular in the late 20th century.
6.互联网在 1984 年就已经出现了，但比现在小得多。当时我是一名大学生和程序员。当时还没有万维网（大约 10 年后才出现），但我们有电子邮件、Usenet（Reddit 的雏形）和许多其他服务。也是在那个时候，游戏设计师开始通过 Genie 和 CompuServe 等新服务进行电子通信。当时，我们认为在线体验非常棒，无法想象它在未来几十年会如何发展。
6. The Internet was around in 1984, but it was much, much smaller than it is today. I was a university student and programmer at that time. There was no World Wide Web (that would arrive about 10 years later), but we had email, Usenet (a sort of ur-Reddit), and many other services. It was also during this time that game designers began communicating electronically with each other via new services like Genie and CompuServe. At the time, we thought the online experience was amazing and could not possibly conceive of how it would grow over the coming decades.
7.这一见解部分受到视频“这就是水”的启发，该视频根据大卫·福斯特·华莱士 (2014) 的演讲改编。
7. This insight was inspired in part by the video “This Is Water,” based on the speech by David Foster Wallace (2014).
8.在质子中，两个夸克被标记为“上”，一个被标记为“下”。中子也由三个夸克组成：两个“下”夸克和一个“上”。不要被这些术语所混淆；它们实际上并不是指方向。如果说有什么不同的话，那就是它们表明物理学家在命名事物时往往有一种古怪的幽默感。“夸克”这个名字本身来自詹姆斯·乔伊斯的《芬尼根的守灵夜》中的一段话，并被共同发现者默里·盖尔曼 (1995) 选择用来描述这些奇异的亚原子实体。
8. In a proton, two of the quarks are labeled as “up” and one as “down.” Neutrons are also made of three quarks: two “down” quarks and one “up.” Don’t be confused by those terms; they don’t really refer to directions. If anything, they show that physicists often have a quirky sense of humor when naming things. The name “quark” itself comes from a passage in James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake, and was chosen by co-discoverer Murray Gell-Mann (1995) to describe these bizarre subatomic entities.
9.在许多科学分支中，将事物分组为亚稳态结构被称为“综合水平”（Novikoff 1945）。在原子和亚原子领域，物理学家创造了他们所谓的“有效场论”，将下一个较低组织水平的差异近似为当前水平的亚稳态整体。
9. In many branches of science, the groupings of things into metastable structures are called “integrative levels” (Novikoff 1945). In the atomic and subatomic realm, physicists have created what they term “effective field theories” that approximate the variances at the next lower level of organization into a metastable whole at the current level.
10.水分子虽然处于亚稳态，但其行为方式仍然非常奇怪，我们通常不会考虑。氢原子可能会跳离，留下一个 OH -离子，并在短时间内产生一个新的 H 3 O +分子，然后再跳回来或被另一个 H +离子取代。水作为一种块体物质本身就是亚稳态的，即使分子交换氢离子和在分子水平上发生其他类似的诡计。
10. Water molecules, while metastable, still act in very odd ways we don’t normally consider. A hydrogen atom might jump off to leave an OH- ion behind and create a new H3O+ molecule for a short time, before hopping back or being replaced by another H+ ion. Water as a bulk substance is itself metastable, even with molecules exchanging hydrogen ions and other shenanigans like this going on at the molecular level.
11.好奇的读者可能会问：组成质子和中子的每个夸克都带有电荷；这些电荷的总和就是质子获得电荷的地方，这就是中子呈电中性的原因。由于在我们知道夸克之前，质子已经带有 +1 电荷，因此夸克必须带有分数电荷：两个“上”夸克各自带有电荷，而“向下”。，这就是质子的 +1 电荷。同样，中子有两个“下”夸克和一个上夸克，这相当于，这就是为什么中子呈电中性。
11. For the curious: each of the quarks making up the proton and neutron has an electrical charge; the sum of these is where the proton gets its charge, and this is why the neutron is electrically neutral. Since the proton was already given a +1 charge before we knew about quarks, the quarks have to have fractional charges: the two “up” quarks each have electrical charge, and the “down” has . , which is how these add up to the proton’s +1 charge. Similarly, a neutron has two “down” quarks and one up, which equates to , which is why a neutron is electrically neutral.
12.这里有一个思维练习，可以帮助你想象一滴水中有多少个水分子：想象一下地球的人口，目前略多于 70 亿。现在，尽管这很难做到，但想象一下地球上每个人都拥有10 个地球的副本，每个副本的人口都超过 70 亿。明白了吗？现在地球上每个人面前都有 10 个闪闪发光的地球，每个地球都有庞大的人口。所有地球副本上的所有人口（加上原始地球！）大约等于一小滴水中的分子数。也就是说，地球上大约有 7.2×10 9个人口。将其平方相当于给每个人一个地球的副本，每个副本有 7.2×10 9个人口。加起来大约是5×10 19人。现在给原始地球上的每个人 10 个副本，而不是 1 个，那就大约是 5×10 20，或者大约是一滴直径约 3 毫米、重量为 0.015 克的水滴中的水分子数量。
12. Here’s a thought exercise to help you visualize how many molecules of water are in a single drop: imagine the population of Earth, which currently stands at a little over 7 billion people. Now, as hard as that is to do, imagine each and every person on the planet holding 10 copies of Earth, each with its own population of more than 7 billion. Got that? Every person on Earth now has 10 shimmering Earths in front of them, each with its own enormous population. That total number of all those people on all those copies of Earth (plus the original!) is about equal to the number of molecules in a single small drop of water. That is, there are about 7.2×109 people on Earth. Squaring this is like giving each person a copy of the planet with its own 7.2×109 people. Together that’s about 5×1019 people. Now give each person on the original Earth 10 copies, not 1, and that’s about 5×1020, or just about the number of molecules of water in a drop of water about 3 mm across and weighing 0.015 grams.
第二章
CHAPTER 2
定义系统
DEFINING SYSTEMS
有了系统思维的基础，你现在可以对系统做出更正式、更具体的定义。在这里，我们将探讨系统是如何组织的，以及新事物和新体验是如何从系统的不同部分产生的。
With a foundation in systems thinking, you can now build a more formal and specific definition of what systems are. Here we explore how systems are organized and how new things and experiences arise from their disparate parts.
这样做可以让你获得分析和设计系统游戏所需的基础概念和词汇。
Doing so gives you the foundational concepts and vocabulary needed for analyzing and designing systemic games.
我们所说的系统
What We Mean by Systems
正如您所见，系统是一个熟悉但定义往往模糊的概念。通过仔细研究“事物”实际上是什么，这个模糊的概念变得更加清晰。正如您在第 1 章“系统基础”中看到的那样，系统就是事物，事物就是系统。系统实际上无处不在。它们构成了我们生活的物质世界和我们帮助创造的社会世界。
As you have seen, systems are a familiar yet often only vaguely defined concept. By carefully examining what “things” actually are, this amorphous concept becomes clearer. As you saw in Chapter 1, “Foundations of Systems,” systems are things, and things are systems. Systems are literally all around us. They make up the physical world we live in and the social world we help create.
但重要的是要记住，系统（以及事物的深层）是动态的，而不是静态的：你无法通过冻结系统来理解它；你必须在其环境中体验它的运作才能真正理解它。由于系统体现了亚历山大的“无名品质”（亚历山大 1979，第 28 页），因此很难用一个像保险杠贴纸一样的句子来定义它们。1系统具有（也许令人抓狂但又神奇的）品质，必须从其组成部分以及它们如何动态地组合形成更大的事物的角度来理解它们——两者同时进行。必须从其上下文操作的角度来理解它们，而不是将其视为静态快照。
It is important to remember, however, that systems (and things, deep down) are dynamic, not static: you cannot understand a system by freezing it in place; you must experience it operating in its context to truly understand it. Because systems embody Alexander’s “quality without a name,” (Alexander 1979, p.28) it is difficult to define them in a single bumper-sticker-like sentence.1 Systems have the (perhaps maddening but also magical) quality that they must be understood in terms of their constituent pieces and how they all dynamically combine to form something greater—both at the same time. They must be understood in terms of their contextual operations, not as a static snapshot.
换句话说，任何系统的定义本身必须是系统的。
In other words, any definition of a system must itself be systemic.
简要定义
A Brief Definition
为了提供一个不会掩盖太多内容的简短定义，系统可以描述如下：
In the interest of providing a short definition that does not gloss over too much, a system can be described as follows:
一组部分，它们共同形成相互作用的循环，从而创建一个持久的“整体”。整体具有属于该组的自身属性和行为，但不属于其中任何单个部分。
A set of parts that together form loops of interaction between them to create a persistent “whole.” The whole has its own properties and behaviors belonging to the group but not to any single part within it.
内容太多了。在本章中，我们将分解这些内容（然后再重新组合！），以便更接近正式定义和详细解释。如前所述，语言的线性确实会在这里成为一个问题：您将看到对尚未解释的内容的引用，并且可能需要多次阅读（多次循环！）才能构建您自己的系统心理模型。
That’s a lot. Throughout this chapter we will break this down (and assemble it back up!) to get closer to a formal definition and detailed explanation. As noted earlier, the linearity of language does become a problem here: you will see references to things that have not yet been explained, and it may take more than one reading (more than one loop!) to construct your own mental model of what a system is.
首先，这里有一个列表，对上面的陈述进行了扩展。我们将在本章中更详细地研究这一点：
To start then, here is a list that expands a bit on the statement above. We will examine this in greater detail throughout this chapter:
系统由部分组成。部分具有内部状态和外部边界。它们通过行为与其他部分交互。行为将信息或更常见的是资源发送到其他部分，以影响其他部分的内部状态。
Systems are made out of parts. Parts have internal state and external boundaries. They interact with other parts via behaviors. Behaviors send information or, more often, resources to other parts to affect the internal state of the other parts.
各部分通过行为相互影响，形成循环。行为产生局部交互（A 到 B），而循环产生传递交互（A 到 B 到 C 到 A）。
Parts interact with other parts via behaviors to create loops. Behaviors create local interactions (A to B), while loops create transitive interactions (A to B to C to A).
系统被组织成层次化的综合层级，这些层级源自基于其循环结构的涌现属性。在每个层级，系统都显示有组织的状态和行为，相当于成为上一层级更大系统的一部分。
Systems are organized into hierarchical integrative levels that arise from emergent properties based on their looped structures. At each level, the system displays organized state and behavior, synonymous with being a part in larger system at the next level up.
在每个层面上，系统都表现出持久性和适应性。它不会很快崩溃，具有自我强化的能力，并且能够容忍和适应其边界之外的不同条件。
At each level the system displays persistence and adaptability. It does not fall apart quickly, being self-reinforcing, and is able to tolerate and adapt to different conditions that exist outside its boundaries.
系统表现出有组织、分散但协调的行为。系统创建一个统一的整体 — — 而这个整体又只是一个更大系统的一部分。
Systems exhibit organized, decentralized, but coordinated behaviors. A system creates a unified whole—which is in turn just a part of a larger system.
我们现在将更详细地研究系统的每个方面。
We will now examine each of those aspects of a system in greater detail.
定义部件
Defining Parts
每个系统都由多个部分组成，并且可以分解成多个部分：这些部分可以是分子中的原子、羊群中的鸟、军队中的单位等等。每个部分都独立于其他部分，每个部分都有自己的身份并独立行动。具体来说，每个部分都由其状态、边界和行为定义，如以下部分所述。（您将在第 8 章“定义游戏部分”中再次看到这些游戏专用术语。）
Every system is made of and can be broken down into separate parts: the parts could be atoms in a molecule, birds in a flock, units in an army, and so on. Each part is independent of others in that each has its own identity and acts on its own. Specifically, each part is defined by its state, boundaries, and behaviors, as described in the following sections. (You will see these again in game-specific terms in Chapter 8, “Defining Game Parts.”)
状态
State
每个部分都有自己的内部状态。它由属性组合而成，每个属性在任何时间点都有特定值。因此，鸟群中的每只鸟都有自己的速度、方向、质量、健康状况等。鸟的速度和质量是属性，每个属性都有一个值（对于这些属性来说是一个数字），即属性的当前状态。部分的整体状态是其所有当前属性值的集合。这在任何时间点都是静态的，但如果部分受到其他部分的影响，则会随时间而变化。
Each part has its own internal state. This is made up of a combination of attributes, each of which has a specific value at any point in time. So each bird in a flock has its own speed, direction, mass, health, and so on. The bird’s speed and mass are attributes, and each have a value (for these, a number) that is the attribute’s current state. The part’s state overall is the aggregation of all of its current attribute values. This is static at any point in time but, if the part is affected by others, changes over time.
在现实世界中，对象的状态不是由具有值的简单属性定义的。（例如，人们实际上没有特定数量的“生命值”。）相反，状态来自组织级别较低或更精细的子系统的聚合状态。（请参阅本章后面的“组织层次和级别”一节。）这些子系统也是由相互作用的部分组成的。正如您所见，在现实世界中，我们必须深入到夸克，才能找到由较小部分组成的子系统。
In the real world, an object’s state is not defined by a simple attribute with a value. (People don’t really have a specific number of “hit points,” for example.) Instead, state emerges from the aggregate states of subsystems at one level of organization lower or finer in detail. (See the section “Hierarchy and Levels of Organization,” later in this chapter.) These subsystems are made of parts as well, all interacting together. As you have seen, in the real world we have to go down to quarks before we stop finding subsystems made of smaller parts.
在游戏中，部件的状态通常由其内部部件的状态在更精细的层次上决定：森林可能没有自己的“健康”属性，而是可能使用其中定义的每棵树的状态的集合。然而，在某些时候，你必须“触底”并创建具有属性/值对的简单部件，这些属性/值对是简单的非系统类型——整数，字符串等等。例如，棋子的状态包括类型（兵、车等等）和棋盘上的位置。在电脑游戏中，怪物可能有 10 个生命值，名字叫 Steve。
In games, a part’s state is often determined by the states of parts within it at a finer level of detail: a forest might not have its own “health” attribute but instead may use the aggregate of the state of every tree defined within it. However, at some point you have to “hit bottom” and create simple parts with attribute/value pairs that are simple, nonsystemic types—integers, strings, and so on. For example, chess pieces have a type (pawn, rook, and so on) and a position on the board as their state. In a computer game, a monster might have 10 hit points and be named Steve.
这种程度的具体性为我们的设计提供了可行的底线，使它们得以实现。由于游戏中各个部分的默认或起始状态通常保存在电子表格中，因此我们有时将这种级别的定义称为“电子表格特定”。这是游戏设计的一个重要品质，因为您只有在敲定设计的所有模糊部分并将其归结为电子表格特定的水平后，才能真正构建游戏。您将在整本书中再次看到这一点，尤其是在第 8 章和第10章“游戏平衡实践”中。
This degree of specificity provides us with a feasible floor to our designs, enabling them to be implemented. Since the default or starting states of various parts in a game are typically kept in a spreadsheet, we sometimes refer to this level of definition as being “spreadsheet specific.” This is an important quality of game design, as you cannot actually build a game until you have hammered out all the vague parts of the design and brought them down to the level of being spreadsheet specific. You will see this again throughout the book, especially in Chapters 8 and 10, “Game Balance Practice.”
然而，电子表格级别的具体性并不是游戏设计系统性的上限。通过从包含部件的子系统中构建系统，您可以创建更具吸引力、更具活力的“二阶设计”（参见第 3 章“游戏和游戏设计的基础”），而这种设计的成功并不依赖于大量且昂贵的内容创作。您应该在设计中寻找机会将较简单的部分组合在一起，以创建更大的系统整体。
However, the spreadsheet level of specificity is not an upper limit to how systemic a game design can be. By building systems out of subsystems that contain parts, you can create a more engaging, dynamic “second-order design” (see Chapter 3, “Foundations of Games and Game Design”) that does not depend for success on extensive and costly content creation. You should look for opportunities in your designs to group simpler parts together to create greater systemic wholes.
边界
Boundaries
部件的边界是一种突现属性（见下文关于突现的讨论），由其内部子部件相互作用的局部邻域定义（见图2.1）。紧密连接在一起的部件（彼此之间的相互作用多于与其他部件之间的相互作用）以及特别是那些相互作用产生循环的部件，形成一个局部子系统，从而在更高的组织级别上创建新部件（有关级别的更多信息，请参见下文）。
A part’s boundary is an emergent property (see below for a discussion of emergence) defined by the local neighborhood of interaction of subparts within it (see Figure 2.1). Parts that are closely networked together—those with more interactions with each other than with other parts—and in particular those with interactions that create loops, form a local subsystem that creates a new part at a higher level of organization (more on levels below).
部分之间的边界并不是绝对的，因为一些局部部分也必然与边界“之外”的其他部分发生相互作用。正如我们讨论原子和质子时一样，重要的是要记住，部分2周围通常没有明显的外皮或包裹物；其边界由组成它的紧密相连的子部分簇定义。实际上，从更高层次的角度来看，边界可能看起来定义得很好，但仔细观察就会发现，边界变得更加模糊，更难准确说出它的位置。
The boundary between parts isn’t absolute, as some local parts necessarily have interactions with other parts “outside” the boundary as well. As with our discussion of atoms and protons, it is important to remember that generally there is no overt skin or wrapper around a part2; its boundary is defined by clusters of closely interconnected subparts that make it up. In effect, the boundary may look well defined from a higher-level perspective, but on closer inspection, it becomes fuzzier and more difficult to say exactly where it lies.
定义某事物是“在某部分之外”还是“在某部分之内”的典型规则是，它是否可以改变更高级别系统的行为。如果可以，那么它就在边界之内，是系统的一部分。如果某事物与系统内部的某个部分进行通信，但其行为无法改变系统的整体行为，那么它就被视为在部分或系统的边界之外。
The typical rule for defining something that is “outside” versus “inside” a part is whether it can change the higher-level system’s behavior. If so, then it’s inside the boundary and is part of the system. If something communicates with a part inside a system but cannot by its behavior change the system’s overall behavior, then it’s considered to be outside the part’s or system’s boundary.
图 2.1一个部件及其边界、相互连接的子部件以及它在整个系统中的位置。请注意，边界是概念性的，由部件之间的相互连接形成，而不是一个独立的部件
Figure 2.1 A part with its boundary, interconnected subparts, and where it fits in the overall system. Note that the boundary is conceptual, formed by the interconnections between parts, not a separate part on its own
实际上，边界及其提供的组织是一种模块化形式，在创建部件和系统时可能会出现或强制执行，就像在软件中一样。使用边界可以使系统的各个部分更易于理解和重用，还可以消除对各种形式的集中控制的依赖。这与 Weinberger (2002) 用来描述分散式万维网的“小块松散连接”的想法相同：每个网页都是整个系统的一部分。没有一个可以控制整个系统，如果其中一个消失，其余部分仍会继续运行。
As a practical matter, the boundary and the organization it provides is a form of modularity that may be emergent or enforced when creating parts and systems, as in software. Using a boundary can make the parts of a system more comprehensible and reusable, and it also removes the temptation to rely on various forms of centralized control. This is the same idea behind the idea of “small pieces loosely joined” that Weinberger (2002) used to describe the decentralized World Wide Web: each web page is a part in the overall system. None controls the entire thing, and if one or another goes away, the rest continues to function.
行为
Behaviors
各部分通过其行为相互影响。每个部分都有自己的任务 — 通常是在系统中创建、更改或销毁某些资源。这些行为可能简单也可能复杂，并且通常通过向其他部分传达某些资源或价值变化来影响它们。特定部分也可能通过其行为影响自身，例如游戏中的怪物会随着时间的推移治愈自己的伤口，或者账户会通过复利计算增加自己的余额。
Parts affect each other via their behaviors. Each part has something that it does—most often some resource it creates, changes, or destroys in the system. These behaviors may be simple or complex, and they typically affect other parts by communicating some resource or value change to them. A given part may affect itself via its behaviors as well, such as by a monster in a game healing its own wounds over time or an account adding to its own balance via compound interest calculations.
与行为相关的一个重要概念是，一个部分可能通过其行为扰乱或影响另一个部分，但每个部分都决定其内部状态的改变以及任何行为响应。在面向对象编程术语中，每个部分都封装了其状态，这意味着没有其他部分可以“进入”并改变它。每个部分都自行决定它将关注哪些行为消息并受其影响。因此，一个部分可以通过其行为向另一个部分发送消息，但由第二部分决定其自己的响应：它可以根据自己的内部规则忽略该消息或使用它来改变其内部状态。
An important concept related to behaviors is that a part may perturb or affect another part with its behavior, but each part determines its own changes to its internal state as well as any behavioral response. In object-oriented programming terms, each part encapsulates its state, meaning that no other part can “reach in” and change it. Each part determines on its own what behavioral messages it will pay attention to and be affected by. So one part may by its behavior send a message to another, but it is up to that second part to determine its own response: it may ignore the message or use it to change its internal state, based on its own internal rules.
来源、库存和汇
Sources, Stocks, and Sinks
在讨论部分时，系统思维语言通常会谈论不同类型的部分，例如源、存量和汇。它们交互的行为通常显示为连接器，其中最常见的类型是两个部分之间的流动。在部分之间流动的可能是消息或其他形式的信息，但通常是某种类型的资源。（请注意，虽然这些名称和符号已在系统思维、科学和工程中得到广泛使用，但今天它们仍然没有规范形式。我们将在这里使用通用名称和符号，但它们旨在实用，而不是规定性的。）
In discussing parts, the language of systems thinking often talks about different types of parts, such as sources, stocks, and sinks. The behaviors by which they interact are often shown as connectors, the most common type of which is a flow between two parts. What flows between parts may be messages or other forms of information but is often a resource of one type or another. (Note that while these names and the symbols for them have been used widely in systems thinking, science, and engineering, today there remains no canonical form for them. We will use common names and symbols here, but they are intended to be utilitarian, not prescriptive.)
源是指任何增加另一部分状态的部分。最简单的例子之一是将浴缸注满水的水龙头（见图2.2）。在现实世界中，水来自某个地方，但在游戏中（以及在一般的系统思维中），我们经常假设源代表某种资源（如水）的取之不尽的供应。
A source is any part that increases another part’s state. One of the simplest examples of this is a faucet that fills a bathtub with water (see Figure 2.2). In the real world, the water comes from somewhere, but in games (and in systems thinking in general), we often assume that a source represents an inexhaustible supply of some resource, such as water.
以浴缸为例，一定量的水（资源）从水源流入库存。代表水源的部分内部状态指定了其创建新资源单位的速率。因此，水源可能有一个值为 2 的内部变量，这意味着它每单位时间（例如每秒）产生 2 个单位的水。水源的行为就是将这些水传递下去；这通常称为流动。水源本身不保留任何水；它只会生成一些水并在可能的情况下将其传递下去。
Using the bathtub example, an amount of water (the resource) flows from the source and into the stock. The state inside the part that represents the source specifies the rate at which it creates new units of its resource. So a source might have an internal variable with a value of 2, meaning that it creates 2 units of water per unit time (e.g., per second). The source’s behavior is what passes this water along; this is often called a flow. The source doesn’t keep any water itself; it just generates some amount and passes it along if it can.
资源表示从一处流向另一处的某物（本例中为水）的数量，就像从源头流向库存一样。一般来说，任何可数、可储存或可交换的东西都可以算作资源，即使它不是严格意义上的物质。角色扮演游戏中的生命值可能是一种资源，帝国控制的省份也可能是一种资源。我们将在第7 章“创建游戏循环”和第 8 章中再次讨论资源。
The resource represents the numeric amount of something (in this example, water) that flows from one part to another, as from the source to the stock. Generally speaking, anything that is countable, storable, or exchangeable qualifies as a resource, even if it is not strictly physical. Health as represented by hit points in a role-playing game may be a resource, as may the provinces an empire controls. We will discuss resources again in Chapter 7, “Creating Game Loops,” and Chapter 8.
库存是源头创造的资源流向的地方。在这个例子中，它是浴缸。你也可以把它想象成一家商店有“库存”的商品，或者一个房间里有多少条鱼“存量池”。存量会积累东西；例如，浴缸会积累水，银行账户会积累钱。对于任何存量，其状态被描述为特定时间的（某种资源）数量。因此，浴缸中可能装有 10 个单位的水，银行账户中可能装有 100 美元。这些数量可能会随时间而变化，但在任何给定时间，您都可以检查存量的状态，它会告诉您其中有多少资源。存量也可能有一个限制，超过这个限制它们将不再接受更多。您的银行账户可能没有上限，但您只能将一定量的水放入浴缸中，否则将无法再放入！
The stock is where the resource created by the source flows to. It is the bathtub in this example. You can also think of this in terms of a store having items “in stock” or how many fish are in a “stock pond.” Stocks accumulate things; for example, bathtubs accumulate water, and bank accounts accumulate money. For any stock, its state is described as an amount (of some resource) at a particular time. So a bathtub might contain 10 units of water, and a bank account might contain $100. Those amounts may change over time, but at any given time, you can check the stock’s state, and it will tell you how much of its resource it contains. Stocks may also have a limit past which they will accept no more. Your bank account probably doesn’t have an upper limit, but you can only put so much water into your bathtub before no more will go in!
那么，汇就是排水口：它是库存的流出。正如库存的状态是它现在包含的“多少”资源一样，它的行为是每单位时间将一定量的资源发送出去。这样，它的功能与源非常相似，关键区别在于，如果库存为空，它就无法传递任何东西，而源通常被认为始终能够生成其资源。
The sink, then, is the drain: it is the outflow from the stock. Just as the stock’s state is “how much” of a resource it contains right now, its behavior is to send some amount of the resource onward per unit time. In this way, it functions very much like the source, with the key difference being that if the stock is empty, it cannot pass anything along, whereas the source is typically assumed to always be able to generate its resource.
虽然在系统中谈论“水龙头”和“排水管”似乎有些奇怪，但它们却是关键元素，尤其是对于游戏而言。在某个时候，你必须为设计的内容划定界限，并将外部的考虑因素放在一边。例如，如果你正在为工厂创建系统模型，你可能会假设水和电会从外部（无界）源流入，而不是同时进行发电厂和水分配的建模。特别是在游戏中，就像通过以非系统术语创建细节来使零件的状态“特定于电子表格”一样，你通常需要指定各种源和水槽、水龙头和排水管，以了解它们如何影响游戏。
While it might seem odd to talk about “faucets” and “drains” in systems, these are key elements, particularly for games. At some point, you have to draw the bounds around what you are designing and leave aside considerations from outside it. For example, if you are creating a system model for a factory, you might assume that water and electricity would flow in from an external (and unbounded) source rather than also taking on the modeling of the power plant and water distribution. In games in particular, as with making a part’s state “spreadsheet specific” by creating its details in nonsystemic terms, you typically need to specify a variety of sources and sinks, faucets and drains, in terms of how they affect the game.
例如，在大型多人在线游戏 (MMO) 的早期，这些游戏中的经济系统被称为“水龙头/排水”经济。图 2.3改编自描述游戏Ultima Online中的经济的图表，并展示了如何以突出显示来源、存量、流量、资源和排水的方式绘制该图表。
For example, in the early days of massively multiplayer online games (MMOs), the economic systems in these games were referred to as “faucet/drain” economies. Figure 2.3 is adapted from a diagram describing the economy in the game Ultima Online and shows how this was diagrammed in a way that highlights sources, stocks, flows, resources, and drains.
在这个系统模型中，左上角有一个无限的水龙头（实际上不止一个），代表各种“虚拟资源”的无限来源，包括非玩家角色（NPC）提供的商品、凭空出现的怪物以及 NPC 支付给玩家的金币。这些资源通过各种存量流动，大部分通过通向右下角的连接流从经济中流出。
In this system model, there is an unbounded faucet (actually more than one) at the top left, representing an unbounded source of various “virtual resources,” including goods supplied by non-player characters (NPCs), monsters that pop out of nowhere, and gold that NPCs pay to players. These resources flow through various stocks and mostly drain out of the economy via the connecting flows leading to the lower right.
在此图中，资源被存放在各种库存中（灰色的碟状框），但此处显示的分组更多的是图解而非实际。例如，玩家可能会“制造”商品并将其存放在库存中（框 6），但他们的库存与其他玩家的库存是分开的。这些库存通常也不受存储量限制，并且无法保证从排水管流出：Simpson（nd）讲述了一个众所周知的故事，一名玩家在游戏中在家中存放了超过 10,000 件制造的（虚拟）衬衫。这给游戏经济带来了真正的问题，因为这意味着必须随时跟踪和核算每个物品（例如每件衬衫）。
In this diagram, resources are shown being kept in various stocks (the gray dish-like boxes), but the grouping shown here is more diagrammatic than actual. For example, a player might “manufacture” goods and keep them in inventory (box 6), but their inventory is separate from that of any other player. These stocks are also typically not limited in how much they can store, and outflow through the drain is not guaranteed: Simpson (n.d.) relates a well-known story of a player who kept over 10,000 manufactured (virtual) shirts in his house in the game. This caused real problems for the game economy as it meant that each object (each shirt, for example) had to be tracked and accounted for at all times.
图 2.3水龙头/排水管经济，改编自Ultima Online。每个灰色框都是一个库存，它们之间有流量。它们从一个永不停止的水龙头开始，到一个永不充满的排水管结束
Figure 2.3 Faucet/drain economy adapted from Ultima Online. Each gray box is a stock, with flows between them. These start at a never-ending faucet and end at a never-filling drain
这种经济体系也存在一个类似的问题，那就是通货膨胀猖獗。请注意，“黄金”（游戏中的主要资源之一和货币）是从无止境的水龙头源中凭空创造出来的。每当游戏中的玩家杀死怪物或向 NPC 供应商出售物品时，就会产生新的黄金并添加到经济中。这些黄金可能会通过制造商品或其他方式流出经济，但其中很大一部分仍留在经济中。随着可用黄金数量的增加，每个单位对玩家的价值都会降低——这就是经济通货膨胀的定义。虽然这个问题的解决方案通常很复杂，如果没有足够系统的经济视角，甚至问题本身也很难理解。您将在第 7 章中再次看到更多关于作为博弈系统的经济体及其问题（包括通货膨胀）的内容。
A similar issue that arises from this sort of economic system is rampant inflation. Note that “gold” (one of the primary resources and the monetary currency in the game) is created ex nihilo from the unbounded faucet-source. Every time a player in the game kills a monster or sells an item to an NPC vendor, new gold is created and added to the economy. This gold might flow back out of the economy via the manufacture of goods or other means, but a great deal of it remains in the economy. As the amount of available gold grows, each individual unit of it becomes reduced in value to the players—the definition of economic inflation. While the solutions to this problem are typically complex, even the issue itself is difficult to understand without a sufficiently systemic view of the economy. You will see more about economies as game systems and their issues (including inflation) again in Chapter 7.
转换者和决策者
Converters and Deciders
除了源、存量和汇点之外，在绘制系统图时，我们经常会遇到其他专门的部件。其中两个是转换器和决策器。图 2.4显示了包含这些部件以及源和汇点的系统图。
In addition to sources, stocks, and sinks, there are other specialized kinds of parts that we often encounter when diagramming systems. Two of them are converters and deciders. Figure 2.4 shows a system diagram that incorporates these, as well as a source and a sink.
在这个系统中，一些资源从源流向转换过程，然后流向接收器。这本身并不十分了不起（甚至算不上一个系统），但它是一种抽象概念，有助于保持此图清晰。作为流程的一部分，还有一个测量：流程是太快还是太慢？这就是它变得系统化的地方，因为这些连接会形成一个回到源的循环。通过测量决策器部分，转换过程保持在所需的范围内。
In this system, some resource flows from a source to a converter process and then to a sink. That in itself is not very remarkable (and it’s not really even a system), but it is an abstraction to help keep this diagram clear. As part of the process, there is also a measurement: is the process going too fast or two slow? This is where it becomes systemic, as these connections create a loop back to the source. By means of the measuring decider parts, the converter process is kept within the required bounds.
细心的读者可能会注意到，该图与图 1.7中离心调速器的更详细图基本相同：发动机是源，它为某些过程提供动力（例如将热量转化为旋转运动），而散热器是排气。发动机速度加快或减慢，使配重块随着离心力上下移动。配重块充当机械决定器，使发动机保持在界限之内。
Careful readers may note that this diagram is essentially the same as the more detailed drawing of a centrifugal governor in Figure 1.7: the engine is the source, and it provides power to some process (such as converting heat to rotational motion), and the sink is the exhaust. The engine goes faster or slower, making the weights move up or down with the centrifugal force. The weights act as a mechanical decider, keeping the engine within bounds.
复杂与复杂
Complicated Versus Complex
连接构成系统的部分总是以形成循环的方式进行。正如您将在这里看到的，循环系统变得复杂。非循环集合可能会创建复杂的过程，但最终它们不会创建复杂的系统。这对整个系统设计，尤其是游戏设计，有着重大影响。
Parts that connect to form systems always do so in ways that form loops. As you will see here, looping systems become complex. Nonlooping collections may create complicated processes, but ultimately they do not create complex systems. This has significant consequences for systems design overall and for game design in particular.
简单的收集和复杂的过程
如果你有一堆零件，它们之间没有任何联系，也就是说它们的行为不会影响彼此的状态，那么它们就形成一个简单的集合，而不是一个系统：一堆砖块（正如庞加莱所说）或一碗水果就是一个集合。3这些集合中的项目之间没有显著的联系或相互作用，因此它们仍然是孤立的。零件必须具有基于其行为的显著、状态变化连接才能创建一个系统。
If you have a bunch of parts that don’t really have any connections in that they have no behaviors that affect each other’s state, then they form a simple collection and not a system: a heap of bricks (as Poincaré said) or a bowl of fruit is a collection.3 The items in these collections have no significant connections or interactions between them, and so they remain isolated. Parts have to have significant, state-changing connections based on their behaviors to create a system.
复杂过程是指由多个部分和许多相互作用组成的过程。然而，这些部分是按顺序连接的，并且仅以线性方式相互影响（见图2.5）。这样的过程通常是可预测和可重复的，并且您知道每个步骤之后会发生什么。但是，由于没有循环来创建反馈，因此该过程不构成系统。
A complicated process is one with multiple parts and many interactions. However, these parts are connected sequentially and affect each other only linearly, one after another (see Figure 2.5). A process like this is often predictable and repeatable, and you know what happens after each step. However, because there are no loops to create feedback, the process does not form a system.
复杂组合的一个例子是我们之前遇到的单摆（参见图 1.2）。摆的重量和悬挂它的杆的长度相互作用，形成一条高度可预测（有时很复杂）的路径。但没有显著的反馈回路使其成为一个复杂系统。
One example of a complicated assemblage is the simple pendulum we encountered earlier (refer to Figure 1.2). The weight of the pendulum and the length of the rod it hangs from interact to create a highly predictable (if sometimes complicated) path. But there are no significant feedback loops to make this into a complex system.
同样，许多装配线流程也很复杂：在装配线上组装汽车涉及很多环节，但同一类型的汽车之间不会有太大差异。将火箭送上月球则更加复杂：有很多环节需要处理，没有人会说这很容易，但流程的不同阶段并不成比例相互影响。一旦完成发射和助推，这些阶段就不会对后续阶段产生不可预测的影响，例如进入月球轨道。更重要的是，登月阶段发生的事情不会对初始发射阶段产生影响。而且由于连接是线性的，一旦你将火箭送上月球，第二次发射几乎没有变化（至少在各部分相互作用并且出现问题之前，也就是当过程转向复杂领域时）。
Similarly, many assembly-line processes are complicated: there’s a lot involved in putting together a car on an assembly line, but it’s not going to vary a whole lot from car to car of the same type. Sending a rocket to the Moon is even more complicated: there’s a lot going on and no one would say it’s easy, but the different phases of the process don’t have disproportionate effects on each other. Once you get through launch and boost, those stages aren’t going to have unpredictable effects on later phases, such as lunar orbital insertion. More importantly, what happens in the lunar landing phase has no effect on the initial launch phase. And because the connections are linear, once you have sent a rocket to the Moon, there’s little variance in doing so a second time (at least until parts do interact and things go wrong, which is when the process veers into complex territory).
从游戏设计的角度来说，向玩家呈现连续关卡的游戏比复杂度还要复杂：通常，第 10 关发生的事情不会影响第 2 关的状态或玩法。一旦玩家玩过某个关卡，他们可能就不会再玩这个关卡了（即使他们玩了，也不会改变，尽管他们之前玩过这个关卡）。这种连续而非系统的游戏设计要求设计师创造更多内容，因为一旦玩家玩过部分游戏，其未来的玩法价值就会急剧降低。
In game design terms, games that present the player with sequential levels are more complicated than complex: typically what happens on Level 10 has no effect on the state or gameplay on Level 2. Once a player has played through a level, they may never play it again (and if they do, it will not have changed even though they have been there before). This sequential rather than systemic game design requires the designer to create more content, as once the player has been through part of the game, its future gameplay value is sharply reduced.
这里的关键概念是，在一个复杂的过程中，各部分之间存在相互作用，但这些相互作用本质上是线性或随机的：过程中没有反馈回路。这样做的一个结果是，当复杂过程中发生意外事件时，它要么完全是随机的，要么更常见的是，可以从结果追溯到单一原因，并修复或更换导致该问题的特定部分。因此，这种过程通常适合线性、还原论的思维，即从一个部分回顾前一个部分以找到根本原因。
The key concept here is that in a complicated process, there are interactions between parts, but these are essentially linear or random: there are no feedback loops in the process. One result of this is that when something unexpected happens in a complicated process, it’s either entirely random or, more often, it’s possible to trace the problem from the effect back to a single cause and fix or replace the specific part that caused it. Therefore, this kind of process is typically amenable to linear, reductionist thinking in looking back from one part to the previous one to find a root cause.
复杂系统
当各部分以相互影响的方式连接在一起形成一个循环时，事情就会变得有趣得多。在这种情况下，各部分仍然相互作用，但现在它们相互作用的方式是，一个部分的动作循环往复，因此一个部分的行为不可避免地会反过来改变其未来的状态和行为（见图2.6）。这些循环构成了一个复杂系统。
When parts affect each other in ways that connect together to form a loop, things become a lot more interesting. In a case like this, parts still interact with each other, but now they do so such that the actions of one part cycle around and come back again so that a part’s behavior inevitably comes back to alter its future state and behavior (see Figure 2.6). These loops are what create a complex system.
图 2.6高度简化的复杂反馈回路。系统中的每个部分都直接或间接地影响其他部分
Figure 2.6 A highly simplified complex feedback loop. Each part in the system directly or indirectly affects the others
正如单摆是复杂组合的一个例子一样，双摆（参见图 1.2）是复杂系统的一个相对简单的示例。双摆的各部分双摆的重量、关节的位置以及重物、关节和悬挂重物的枢轴在空间中的位置，都相互作用并相互反馈。这就是为什么双摆的路径对其初始条件如此敏感的原因：当它移动时，每个部分的位置和力都会发生变化，每个部分都会反馈给其他部分（以及自身），从相似的起始位置创建出截然不同的路径。
Just as the simple pendulum is an example of a complicated assemblage, the double pendulum (refer to Figure 1.2) is a relatively simple example of a complex system. The parts of the double pendulum—the mass of the weight, the location of the joint, and the position in space of the weight, the joint, and the pivot from which it all hangs, all interact and feedback on each other. This is why the path the double pendulum takes is so sensitive to its initial conditions: as it moves, the position and force on each part change, each part feeding back on the others (and thus itself), creating wildly divergent paths from similar starting locations.
我们生活中的方方面面都有许多复杂系统的例子，包括人体、全球经济、爱情故事、飓风、白蚁丘，当然还有许多游戏。本书开头的图 I.1也展示了本书所讨论的复杂系统的抽象视图。
There are many examples of complex systems across every part of our existence, including the human body, the global economy, a romance, hurricanes, termite mounds, and, of course, many games. Even Figure I.1 at the start of this book shows an abstract view of the complex system that this book is about.
这些系统中的每一个都具有多个独立部分的特性，这些部分具有自己的内部状态，并通过其行为相互影响，形成反馈回路。正如您将在此处看到的那样，它们还随着时间的推移保持适应性和对外部变化的稳健性，并产生有组织的行为和新兴属性。
Each of these systems has the qualities of having multiple, independent parts that have their own internal state and affect each other via their behavior in ways that form feedback loops. They also, as you will see here, remain adaptive and robust to external changes over time and create organized behavior and emergent properties.
各部分形成循环的方式意味着每个部分都会影响其自身的未来状态和行为。部分 A 影响 B，B 影响 C，C 又影响 A。这些行为影响需要一段时间，因此经过一个循环并受到 C 的影响后，“未来 A”将处于与“当前 A”不同的状态。这种循环连接具有巨大的影响。这意味着，尽管存在还原论的宇宙观（如笛卡尔和牛顿所倡导的），但复杂系统不能轻易分解成简单的复杂系统：“解开循环”会破坏其本质，因为它会破坏最终的连接（例如，从 C 回到 A）。
The way in which parts form loops means that each part affects its own future state and behavior. Part A affects B, which affects C, which then affects A again. These behavioral effects take some amount of time, so “future A” will be in a different state from “current A” after one cycle through the loop and having been affected by C. This looping connection has dramatic consequences. It means that, despite the reductionist view of the universe (as championed by Descartes and Newton), complex systems cannot easily be broken down to be turned into merely complicated ones: “unwinding the loop” destroys its essential nature by breaking the final connection (for example, from C back to A).
我们将回到这一点，因为它与非线性有关，整体不同于或大于其各部分之和——正如亚里士多德、心理学家考夫卡和生态学家史末资所理解的那样，劳伦斯在关于水的诗中将其称为“第三种事物”，亚历山大则将其称为“无名之物”。复杂与复杂之间、还原部分与它们如何创造新兴整体之间的这种联系对于理解和创建系统至关重要。
We will return to this point as it relates to nonlinearity and the whole being other, or greater, than the sum of its parts—as understood by those from Aristotle to the psychologist Koffka and the ecologist Smuts, and as referred to by Lawrence as the “third thing” in his poem about water and Alexander as the “quality without a name.” This connection between complicated and complex, between reductive parts and how they can create emergent wholes, is vital for understanding and creating systems.
循环
Loops
复杂系统包含具有行为的部分，这些行为以形成循环的方式连接各部分。这些循环在许多方面都是系统和游戏中最重要的结构。识别它们并有效地构建它们是系统中工作的关键。
Complex systems contain parts that have behaviors, and these behaviors connect the parts in ways that form loops. These loops are in many ways the most important structures in systems and in games. Recognizing them and building them effectively is key to working in systems.
从最基本的角度看，循环既可以是建设性的，也可以是破坏性的。在系统思维中，它们通常被称为强化循环或平衡循环（有时称为正反馈循环或负反馈循环）。强化循环会增加循环中每个部分行为的影响，而平衡循环则会降低这些影响。两者都很重要，但在几乎所有情况下，如果系统确实如果至少没有一个主要的强化环路，它很快就会消失并停止存在：如果环路消除了其中各部分的行为，它们很快就会停止发挥作用，彼此之间完全没有联系。（例外情况是，当每个部分形成稳定的环路以防止另一个部分起作用时，就像一堵墙被相对的扶壁支撑着，如果没有另一个扶壁，任何一个扶壁都会倒塌。）
At their most basic, loops may either be constructive or destructive. In systems thinking, they are typically called reinforcing or balancing loops (sometimes positive feedback or negative feedback loops). Reinforcing loops increase the effects of each part’s behavior in the loop, while balancing loops decrease them. Both are important, but in almost all cases, if a system does not have at least one primary reinforcing loop, it will soon diminish and cease to exist: if the loop extinguishes the behaviors of the parts within it, they will soon cease their function and have no connection to each other at all. (The exceptions are when stable loops are made by each part preventing another from acting, as in a wall held up by opposing buttresses, either of which would topple the wall if not for the other.)
循环是各部分之间相互作用的结果。每个部分都有一种影响其他部分的行为，这通过循环中的箭头表示出来，如图2.7所示。在此处显示的示例中，文本部分（例如“账户余额”和“拥有的财产”）是股票的示例，如前所述：这是保存一定数量或价值的地方。箭头表示各部分的行为对股票数量的影响：如果箭头旁边有一个 +，则第一只股票越多，第二只股票的数量就越多。如果箭头旁边有一个 −，则第一只股票的数量增加会减少第二只股票的数量。
Loops exist as the interactions between parts. Each part has a behavior that affects another and that is shown by the arrows in the loop, as in Figure 2.7. In the examples shown here, the text portions (for example, “Account balance” and “Properties owned”) are examples of stocks, as described earlier: this is where some amount or value is held. The arrows indicate an effect on the amount in stock, as enacted by a part’s behavior: if an arrow has a + beside it, then the more there is of the first stock, the more is added to the second. If there is a − beside an arrow, then an increased amount in the first stock reduces the amount in the second.
强化和平衡循环
Reinforcing and Balancing Loops
强化回路涉及两个或多个部分，每个部分都会增强或增加下一个部分库存中某种资源的数量，从而增加其行为输出。这些回路可以在生活中的很多情况和游戏中发现。图 2.7显示了两个常见的例子。在银行账户中，账户余额会增加利息收入，而利息收入又会增加账户余额。也就是说，你库存的货币资源（账户余额）越多，由于利息而增加的金额就越多。同样，在游戏大富翁中，你拥有的现金越多（你的现金存量是一种资源），你能购买的房产就越多。房产也是资源，你拥有的这种资源越多，你获得的现金资源就越多。
Reinforcing loops involve two or more parts where each enhances or increases the amount of some resource in stock of the next, which increases its behavioral output. These loops can be found in a lot of situations in life and in a lot of games. Two common examples are shown in Figure 2.7. In a bank account, the account balance increases the interest earned—and the interest earn then increases the account balance. That is, the more money-resource you have in stock (the account balance), the more this amount is increased due to interest. Similarly, in the game Monopoly, the more cash you have (your stock of cash as a resource), the more properties you can buy. Properties are also resources, and the more of this resource you have, the more cash-resource you gain.
一般来说，强化循环会增加相关部分的价值或活动。在游戏中，它们往往会奖励获胜者，放大游戏的早期成功，并破坏游戏玩法。如果一个玩家能够更好地利用这一点，它们就可能导致失控的胜利条件游戏中的强化循环。由于这种特性，这些循环有时被称为“滚雪球”循环（就像滚下山时越来越大的雪球）或“富人越来越富”循环。您将在第 7 章中再次看到这些情况，其中更详细地讨论了游戏中的强化循环如何出错。
In general, reinforcing loops increase the value or activity of the parts involved. In a game, they tend to reward winners, magnify early success in a game, and destabilize the gameplay. They can lead to runaway win conditions if one player is able to capitalize even a little bit better on a reinforcing loop in the game. Because of this property, these loops are sometimes called “snowball” loops (like a snowball that grows larger and larger as it rolls downhill) or “the rich get richer” loops. You will see these conditions again in Chapter 7, with a more detailed discussion of how reinforcing loops in games can go awry.
平衡回路与强化回路相反：每个部分都会降低回路中下一个部分的价值，从而降低其活动。图 2.8显示了平衡回路的两个简单示例。第一个示例是烤箱恒温器的抽象描述。根据烤箱的温度设定，其当前温度与设定温度之间存在差距。差距越大，施加的热量就越多。差距就像是库存中的资源，正在慢慢耗尽。随着施加的热量越来越多，差距变得越来越小（资源减少），从而导致施加的热量也变得越来越少。
Balancing loops are the opposite of reinforcing loops: each part reduces the value and thus the activity of the next part in the loop. Two simple examples of balancing loops are shown in Figure 2.8. The first is an abstract depiction of an oven thermostat. Based on the temperature set for the oven, there is a gap between its current temperature and this setting. The larger that gap, the more heat is applied. The gap acts as a resource in stock that is slowly draining down. As more heat is applied, the gap becomes smaller (the resource is reduced), causing the amount of heat being applied to become smaller as well.
图 2.8右侧的图表显示了角色扮演游戏 (RPG) 中处理经验值 (XP) 的常见方案。在获得新级别时，下一级别所需的 XP 会比达到当前级别所需的 XP 增加（通常会大幅增加）。这会降低角色升级的速度。
The diagram on the right in Figure 2.8 shows a common scheme for how experience points (XP) are handled in a role-playing game (RPG). On gaining a new level, the XP needed for the next level increases (often dramatically) over the number needed to attain the current one. This has the effect of reducing the speed with which the character will gain another level.
平衡循环用于维持或恢复循环中各部分之间的平衡或奇偶校验。在游戏中，它们往往对落后的玩家更宽容，稳定并延长游戏时间，防止早期获胜者永久领先。一个典型的例子是游戏《马里奥赛车》中的“蓝壳”（正式名称为“带刺壳”） 。此物品是游戏中随机提供给除第一名以外的任何人的强化物品。一旦发射，它会向前移动并可以击中任何不让路的人，但它只专门针对第一名的赛车手。击中后，它会将玩家的车翻过来，减慢他们的速度。通过这种方式，它充当了强大的平衡因素，为落后者提供了赶上的机会。
Balancing loops are used to maintain or restore equilibrium, or parity, between parts in a loop. In games, they tend to be more forgiving to players who are behind, stabilizing and thus prolonging the game, preventing early winners from permanently pulling ahead. A classic example of this is the “blue shell” (officially called a “spiny shell”) in the game Mario Kart. This item is a power-up randomly made available in the game to anyone except the person in first place. Once fired, it moves forward and can hit anyone who does not get out of the way, but it only specifically targets the racer in first place. Upon hitting, it flips the player’s cart over, slowing them down. In this way, it acts as a powerful balancing factor, providing those behind the opportunity to catch up.
组合、线性和非线性效应
Combined, Linear, and Nonlinear Effects
每个系统都有强化回路和平衡回路。回到离心调速器（参见图 1.7和2.4），你可以看到它使用两种回路：如果发动机转速过慢，转速降低会导致配重下降，阀门打开，从而增加发动机的速度（强化回路）。但如果发动机转速过快，配重上升，阀门关闭，发动机的活动减少（平衡回路）。
Every system has both reinforcing and balancing loops. To return to the centrifugal governor (refer to Figures 1.7 and 2.4), you can see that it uses both kinds of loops: if the engine is going too slow, the reduced spin causes the weights to drop and the valve to open, increasing the engine’s speed (a reinforcing loop). But if the engine is going too fast, the weights rise, the valve closes, and the engine’s activity is reduced (a balancing loop).
对于离心式调速器来说，输出结果可能是线性的：也就是说，重量的上升和下降与发动机的速度成正比。这样的关系很容易理解。然而，大多数系统的输出与输入或潜在变化呈非线性关系，这使得它们的行为更加有趣。
In the case of the centrifugal governor, the output results may be linear: that is, the weights rise and fall in direct proportion to the engine’s speed. Relationships like this are easy to understand. Most systems, however, have outputs with a nonlinear relationship to the inputs or underlying changes, and this makes their behavior far more interesting.
例如，假设有两个动物种群，一个是捕食者，一个是猎物：猞猁和野兔。两者都会试图繁殖并增加自己的种群，当然猞猁会捕食并吃掉野兔。（猞猁可能也有自己的捕食者，但在这个模型中我们只会抽象地表示它们。）
For example, suppose you have two populations of animals, one predator and one prey: lynxes and hares. Both will try to reproduce and increase their own population, and of course lynxes will hunt and eat the hares. (The lynxes probably also have their own predators, but we will represent them only abstractly in this model.)
您可能会想象猞猁和野兔形成一个平衡环，如图2.9中的大环所示。现在不用担心那里显示的希腊字母；只需关注环即可。野兔繁殖，增加（增强）它们的数量，如右侧的小环所示。然而，猞猁会吃掉野兔，从而减少（平衡）它们的数量。因此，当野兔数量下降时，猞猁就会更难生存，因为可吃的食物更少。这种复杂关系产生的不仅仅是线性平衡行为，而是一个非线性振荡图，如图2.10所示。该图显示时间向右移动，捕食者和猎物的数量随着时间的推移而上升和下降。这些线显示了捕食者和猎物（猞猁和野兔）的数量如何由于它们之间的相互和整体平衡关系而变化。捕食者的数量永远不如猎物多，而且捕食者的兴衰总是与猎物的兴衰相抵消：一旦野兔当野兔开始消失时，猞猁繁殖（或生存）的难度加大，因此它们的数量开始减少。与此同时，野兔的生存难度加大，因此它们的数量开始再次增加。这使得猞猁更容易生存并繁衍后代，而后代又会吃掉更多的野兔，从而重新开始这个循环。
You might imagine that the lynxes and hares form a balancing loop, as shown in the big loop in Figure 2.9. For now don’t worry about the Greek letters shown there; just focus on the loops. The hares reproduce, increasing (reinforcing) their number, as shown in the little loop on the right. However, the lynxes eat the hares, which reduces (balances) their population. As a result, when the hare population goes down, the lynxes have a harder time surviving because there’s less to eat. What emerges from this complex relationship is not just a linear balancing act but a nonlinear oscillating graph, as shown in Figure 2.10. This graph shows time moving to the right, with the number of predators and prey rising and falling over time. The lines show how the numbers of predators and prey (lynxes and hares) change as a result of their mutual and overall balancing relationship to each other. The predators are never as numerous as their prey, and their rise and fall is consistently offset in time from that of the prey: once the hares start to disappear, the lynxes have a more difficult time reproducing (or surviving), and so their numbers start to dwindle. As that happens, the hares have an easier time surviving, and so their numbers begin to grow again. This makes it easier for the lynxes to survive and have offspring, who then eat more of the hares, starting the cycle all over again.
图 2.10随时间变化的山猫和野兔种群数据模型（Iberg 2015）
Figure 2.10 Lynx and hare model of population data over time (Iberg 2015)
理解该系统产生的非线性很重要。我们经常（天真地）期望现在正在上升的数量会继续无限上升：如果今天一切顺利，明天也会继续顺利。这忽略了任何潜在的非线性效应，任何数学或系统建模都会显示这一点。如果你考虑系统各部分之间的关系，非线性和振荡关系的原因就变得很清楚：每当捕食者杀死猎物时，它从猎物种群中消灭的不仅是它杀死的动物，还有它可能拥有的所有潜在后代。随着时间的推移，这会产生放大效应。因此，两者之间的关系不仅是加法关系，而且是乘法关系。逐步了解这一点可能有助于明确最后一点：
The nonlinearity that emerges from this system is important to understand. We often (naively) expect that a quantity that is rising now will continue to rise indefinitely: if things are going well today, they will continue to go well tomorrow. This ignores any underlying nonlinear effects, as any mathematical or systemic modeling will show. If you think about the relationships between the parts of the system, the reason for the nonlinear and oscillating relationship becomes clear: whenever a predator kills a prey animal, it is removing from the prey population not just the animal it has killed but all of the potential offspring it might have had. This has a magnifying effect over time. Thus, the relationship between the two is not merely additive but multiplicative. Stepping through this may help make that last point clear:
当一只猞猁杀死一只野兔时，野兔的数量就会减少一只。
When a lynx kills a hare, it reduces the hare population by one.
但未来的野兔种群也会失去这只野兔本应生育的后代。
But the future hare population also loses the offspring that this hare would have had.
而下一代野兔的数量并不是减少一只，而是减少一只乘以原本应有的后代数量。
And the next generation of hares isn’t down by one but by one multiplied by the number of offspring that one would have had.
下一代的数量按照每只野兔所生育的后代数量而减少……如此循环往复。
The following generation is down by the number of offspring each of those hares would have had…and on and on.
总体结果是，杀死一只野兔与未来的野兔数量具有放大、乘积的关系。
The overall result is that killing one hare has a magnified, multiplicative relationship with the future hare population.
最后，由于猞猁种群需要野兔才能生存，当野兔数量很少时，猞猁就很难生存，这使得野兔数量能够有所回升。
Finally, since the lynx population needs the hares to survive, when there are few hares, the lynxes have a hard time surviving, which allows the hares to bounce back a bit.
通过观察山猫和野兔的系统，你可以看到它们的关系不仅仅是线性或附加的。它们之间的关系不仅仅是各自作用的总和。从系统层面来说，另一种说法是，正如斯穆茨 (1927) 所说，在个体层面上，这种相互作用的结果创造了一个非线性的整体，其“大于各部分之和”。
By looking at the system of the lynxes and the hares, you can see that their relationship isn’t merely linear or additive. There’s more than the sum of each at work. Another way of saying this, from a systemic level is, as Smuts (1927) said, the result of interactions like this at an individual level creates a nonlinear whole that is “more than the sum of its parts.”
然而，系统的非线性输出并不一定像这种群体数据一样具有周期性和振荡性；各种结果都是可能的。您已经在双摆轨迹不可预测的行为中看到了一个例子（参见图 1.3）。一些稳定部件（重物和通过接头连接的两根杆）的行为完全是非线性和混乱的。
However, nonlinear output from a system is not necessarily periodic and oscillating like this population data; all sorts of results are possible. You have already seen one example of this in the unpredictable behavior of the path traced by a double pendulum (refer to Figure 1.3). The behavior of a few stable parts (the weight and two rods connected by joints) is completely nonlinear and chaotic.
非线性效应的数学建模
为了更精确地描述捕食者和猎物之间的乘法关系，我们可以看看长期以来被称为捕食者-猎物或洛特卡-沃尔特拉方程（Lotka 1910，Volterra 1926）的方程，如图2.11所示。这些方程看起来比实际要复杂得多——我们通常不会在游戏设计中使用它们，甚至不会在捕食者和猎物之间的关系的一般系统表示中使用它们。尽管如此，了解这些方程的工作原理以及如何从系统的角度处理同类问题还是很有用的。
To be more precise about the multiplicative relationship between predator and prey, we can look to what have long been known as predator–prey, or Lotka–Volterra, equations (Lotka 1910, Volterra 1926), as shown in Figure 2.11. These equations look a lot more daunting than they are—and we don’t typically use them in game design or even in general systemic representations of relationships like those between predator and prey. Nevertheless, it’s useful to understand how these equations work and how to approach the same kind of problem from a systems point of view.
图 2.11中的方程和图 2.9中的因果循环图都表明，猎物数量以αx的速率增加，即猎物数量x乘以它们繁衍后代的速度，用α（alpha，此处用作变量）表示。另一种说法是，该模型假设每只活着的猎物x都会在下一代繁衍出α 个后代。这些猎物以βxy的速率死亡，其中y表示捕食者的数量，β（beta）是一个参数，表示x和y（猎物和捕食者）相遇导致猎物死亡的频率。这等于第一个等式的左边，它表示x的“随时间的变化” ，即猎物数量（dx/dt在微积分中表示“在很短的时间内x的非常小的变化”，其中d表示尽可能接近于零的变化量或时间，t表示时间）。
What both the equation in Figure 2.11 and the causal loop diagram in Figure 2.9 show is that prey increase at a rate of αx—that is, the number of prey, x, multiplied by how fast they have offspring, designated by α (alpha, used here as a variable). Another way of saying this is that every living prey animal x is assumed in this model to give rise to α offspring in the next generation. These prey animals die at a rate given by βxy, where y is how many predators there are, and β (beta) is a parameter that states how often a meeting of x and y, prey and predator, results in a prey animal dying. This equals the left side of the first equation, which expresses the “change over time” in x, the number of prey animals (dx/dt is used in calculus to mean “a very small change in x over a very small period of time,” with d indicating an amount of change or time that is as close to zero as possible and t representing time).
因此，再次陈述第一个方程，任何给定时间野兔（猎物动物）数量的变化基于野兔数量乘以其出生率，减去猞猁吃掉的野兔数量，由猞猁的数量、野兔的数量以及猞猁捕获野兔的速度决定。
So, to state that whole first equation again, the change in the number of hares (prey animals) at any given time is based on the number of hares times their birth rate, minus the number of hares eaten by lynxes, which is given by the number of lynxes, the number of hares, and the rate at which a lynx gets a hare.
捕食者的方程式与之类似，但这里我们抽象出了它们死亡的原因。因此，任何给定时间的猞猁（捕食者，y）的数量取决于它们拥有的食物量、它们的出生率（δxy）和它们的死亡率（γy），其中δ（小写希腊字母delta）是它们将食物转化为小猞猁的效率的修正值，γ（gamma）是每只猞猁死亡速度的修正值。
The equation for the predators is similar, but here we abstract out their reasons for dying. So the number of lynxes (predators, y) at any given time is based on how much food they have and their birth rate (δxy) and the rate at which they die off (γy), where δ (the lowercase Greek letter delta) is the modifier for how efficiently they can essentially turn food into little lynxes, and γ (gamma) is the modifier for how quickly each one dies off.
为了表明这种非线性模型在现实世界中得到体现，图 2.12展示了 19 世纪末和 20 世纪初收集的实际猞猁-野兔种群波动数据（MacLulich 1937）。当然，这些数据比上面的模型更混乱，因为在我们的抽象系统中还未使用其他依赖项：猎物动物的食物来源、捕食捕食者或猎物的其他动物、天气影响等等。然而，种群中的非线性波动是显而易见的。
To show that this kind of nonlinear model is reflected in the real world, Figure 2.12 shows a depiction of data of actual lynx–hare population oscillations collected in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (MacLulich 1937). This data is messier than the model above, of course, because there are other dependencies not used in our abstract system: food sources for the prey animals, other animals preying on either predator or prey, weather effects, and so on. The nonlinear oscillations in the populations are nevertheless apparent.
图 2.12实际捕食者-猎物数量数据，改编自 MacLulich (1937)
Figure 2.12 Actual predator–prey population data, adapted from MacLulich (1937)
数学建模与系统建模
Mathematical Versus Systemic Modeling
上一节中使用的洛特卡-沃尔特拉方程为一系列系统效应创建了一个简明的数学模型。它们很好地展示了捕食者-猎物关系中出现的非线性，而且它们以一种让熟悉此类数学建模的人不仅觉得简洁甚至美妙的方式展示了这一点。然而，这样的一组数学陈述并不能帮助我们理解系统本身的内部运作。它将系统的各个部分（单个野兔和猞猁）视为抽象的聚合符号，而不是通过其行为相互作用的实体。
The Lotka–Volterra equations used in the preceding section create a concise mathematical model for a set of systemic effects. They demonstrate well the nonlinearities that emerge from the predator–prey relationship, and they do so in a way that those who are familiar with such mathematical modeling can find not only succinct but even beautiful. Such a set of mathematical statements does not, however, inform our understanding of the inner workings of the system itself. It treats the parts of the system, the individual hares and lynxes, as abstracted aggregate symbols rather than as entities interacting with each other via their behaviors.
也许值得花一点时间来讨论一下在这种情况下模型的含义。上述系统和数学表示都提供了现实世界过程的抽象近似。如图2.12所示，现实世界中山猫和野兔之间的关系比系统图及其图形或数学方程式所提供的不精确说明更加复杂。在游戏中，就像在你创建的大多数其他系统中一样，你要为世界的某个部分建立模型。没有一个模型真正完全准确，就像模型船永远不会完全像一艘真正的全尺寸船一样。然而，我们制作的模型是有用的，因为它们使我们能够加深对更大规模、更详细过程的理解 — — 在我们的例子中，就是制作游戏。我们将在第 3 章和第7 章中进一步讨论游戏的内部模型。
It may be worth taking a moment to discuss what is meant by a model in this context. Both the systemic and mathematical representations above provide abstract approximations of real-world processes. As shown in Figure 2.12, the real-world relationship between lynxes and hares is messier than the inexact illustrations provided by either the systems diagram and its graph or the mathematical equations. In games, as in most other systems you create, you are making a model of some part of the world. No model is ever really completely accurate, just as a model ship is never quite like an actual full-size ship. The models we make are nevertheless useful, as they allow us to improve our understanding of a larger-scale, more detailed process—and, in our case, to make games. We’ll talk more about the internal model of games in Chapters 3 and 7.
在图 2.11中方程式所示的数学模型中，出生率、捕食率和死亡率等参数（上文中的α、δ、β和γ）是可以调整以改变整体行为的控件。在游戏中，这些参数通常被非正式地称为“旋钮”，设计师的操作是向上或向下转动旋钮以改变特定响应。在数学模型中，这些旋钮本质上位于黑匣子的外部：它们通过给定的方程式影响内部工作，但它们的行为对观察者来说可能根本不明显。
In the mathematical model shown in the equations in Figure 2.11, the parameters like the birth, predation, and death rates—α, δ, β, and γ above—are controls you can tweak to change the overall behavior. In games, these parameters are often informally called “knobs,” with the designer’s action being that of turning a knob up or down to change a particular response. In a mathematical model, these knobs are essentially on the outside of a black box: they affect the internal workings via the equations given, but their actions may not be at all obvious to the observer.
在系统设计中，这些参数通常通过捕食者和猎物内部状态的低级交互来实现，而不是作为高级参数旋钮。例如，在系统模型中，猞猁和野兔可能有自己的内部状态和行为，这些状态和行为决定了它们的有效出生率（上式中的α和δ），而猞猁的攻击强度与野兔的防御值将共同决定上式中显示的聚合捕食（β）参数。这样的系统视图可以使模型更易于理解和细致入微，从设计师的角度来看不那么晦涩难懂。重要的是构建您的系统，以便这些非线性结果在更高级别中从中出现。然而，在某个时候，作为一名设计师，您需要确定系统的最低细节级别，并在那里实现适当的参数（包括随机值）来表示更低级别的行为。
In systemic design, these parameters are more typically implemented via lower-level interactions of the internal state of the predator and prey rather than as high-level parametric knobs. For example, in a systemic model, the lynxes and hares likely have their own internal states and behaviors that determine their effective birth rate (α and δ in the equations above), and the attack strength of the lynxes versus the defense value of the hares will together determine what is shown in the above equations as the aggregated predation (β) parameter. Such a systemic view can make for more comprehensible and nuanced models that are less opaque from the designer’s point of view. It is important to construct your systems such that nonlinear results like these emerge from them at higher levels. Nevertheless, at some point, as a designer, you will need to decide the lowest level of detail for your system and implement appropriate parameters there (including random values) to represent even lower-level behavior.
混沌与随机
Chaos and Randomness
在讨论循环系统背景下的数学和系统模型时，我们还应该触及混沌和随机性之间的差异。您将在第 9 章“游戏平衡方法”中看到有关概率和随机性的另一个详细讨论。
In discussing mathematical and systemic models in the context of looping systems, we should also touch on the differences between chaos and randomness. You will see another detailed discussion of probability and randomness in Chapter 9, “Game Balance Methods.”
随机效应
随机系统是不可预测的，至少在一定范围内是不可预测的；例如，具有 1 到 10 之间随机状态的系统可能处于该范围内的任何值。也就是说，每当需要零件属性的值时，您不会简单地为其分配一个数字（例如 5），而是随机确定该数字在其范围内的值。在最简单的情况下，如果范围是 1 到 10，那么该范围内的每个数字都有相同的概率（1/10 或 10%）每次确定下一个值时都会出现。由于属性的状态是随机的，因此您无法根据现在的值判断其将来的值。
A system that is random is unpredictable, at least within a range; for example, a system with a random state between 1 and 10 may be at any value within that range. That is, whenever a value for an attribute on a part is called for, rather than simply assigning it a single number, say 5, you randomly determine what the number is within its range. In the simplest case, if the range is 1 to 10, then each number in that range has the same chance—1/10, or 10%—of appearing any time the next value is determined. Since the attribute’s state is random, you can’t tell what its value will be in the future based on what it is now.
在游戏中，这样的系统可以用于模拟我们实际上并未建模的低级系统的操作：与其让系统的输出始终相同，不如让它在规定的范围内随机变化。这为高级系统（这只是其中的一部分）提供了可变性，因此这里的结果不是可预测和无聊的。游戏中一个常见的例子是攻击造成的伤害量。虽然可以考虑多种因素（使用的武器、用户的技能、攻击类型、任何盔甲或其他防御手段等等），但在某些时候，在指定范围内随机产生的可变伤害量可以代替模拟 1,000 多个因素，而这些因素本身太难、太耗时或微不足道，无法单独模拟。
In games, systems like this are useful as a way to simulate the action of low-level systems we are not actually modeling: rather than have the output of a system always be the same, we can enable it to vary randomly across its prescribed range. This provides variability to the higher-level system of which this is just one part so that the result here is not predictable and boring. A common example of this in games is how much damage is dealt by an attack. While a multitude of factors may be taken into account (the weapon used, the user’s skill, the type of attack, any armor or other defenses, and so on), at some point a variable amount of damage, random within a specified range, takes the place of simulating 1,000 more factors that in themselves are too difficult, time-consuming, or negligible to simulate on their own.
混乱效应
在现实世界中，我们遇到混沌系统的频率远高于随机系统：就像前面讨论过的双摆一样，这些系统是确定性的，这意味着原则上，如果你知道系统在某个时间点的完整状态，你就可以预测它未来的行为。然而，这些系统也很容易受到条件微小变化的影响。因此，从两个相差很小的位置启动双摆或其他混沌系统将导致两条路径不仅略有不同，而且完全不同。
In the real world, we encounter chaotic systems far more often than we experience random ones: like the double pendulum discussed earlier, these are systems that are deterministic, meaning that in principle, if you know the complete state of the system at some point in time, you can predict its future behavior. However, these systems are also highly susceptible to minute changes in conditions. So starting a double pendulum or another chaotic system from two positions that are different by a tiny amount will result in two paths that are not just a little different but completely different from each other.
但事情当然并不总是这么简单。如前所述，一个混乱但确定且非随机的系统不适合进行还原论的“钟表式”分析。系统性、非线性效应通常使得无法通过分解系统来分析系统；这样的系统必须作为一个整体系统进行分析，要么通过表示其子部分、它们之间的关系以及这些相互作用产生的影响，要么通过使用数学建模（如前文讨论的洛特卡-沃尔泰拉方程）来进行分析。
But of course things are not always this simple. A system that is chaotic but deterministic and not random is not amenable to reductionist, “clockwork” analysis, as discussed earlier. Systemic, nonlinear effects often make it impossible to analyze a system by taking it apart; such a system must be analyzed as a whole system, either by representing its subparts, their relationships, and the effects that come from these interactions, or by use of mathematical modeling like the Lotka–Volterra equations discussed earlier.
此外，混沌系统有时会表现出看似非混沌的行为。当混沌系统自身表现出非线性行为时，这一点尤其明显；此类事件通常称为“共振事件”。当大量小的混沌事件结合成一个强化回路，产生非线性结果，对系统本身产生巨大影响时，就会发生共振事件。从风或甚至人们走过桥梁导致桥梁摇晃（有时是灾难性的影响）的方式可以看出这一点。
Moreover, chaotic systems sometimes display what looks like nonchaotic behavior. This is particularly evident when a chaotic system can behave nonlinearly with itself; such events are often known as “resonance events.” Resonance events happen when a large number of small, chaotic events combine in a reinforcing loop to create a nonlinear result with an enormous effect on the system itself. This can be seen in the ways that wind or even people walking across a bridge cause it to sway, sometimes disastrously.
倒塌的桥梁
众所周知，华盛顿州的塔科马海峡大桥在 1940 年因遭受强风冲击而自毁。虽然风本身不会导致大桥倒塌，但它确实推动了大桥，使其摇晃——一开始只是一点点。当风推动大桥时，主跨的长度使其以特定的频率摇晃。这种摇晃随后增加了大桥承受风的程度，进一步增加了其运动的强度。桥梁和风很快结合成一个混沌系统，其中有一个占主导地位的强化环，带来了剧烈而灾难性的后果 (Eldridge 1940)。见图2.13。
The Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington State famously self-destructed in 1940 after being buffeted by wind. While the wind alone couldn’t have caused the bridge to collapse, it did push on the bridge, causing it to sway—just a little at first. As the wind pushed on the bridge, the length of the main span caused it to sway with a particular frequency. This swaying then increased how much the bridge caught the wind, further increasing the intensity of its motion. The bridge and the wind quickly became joined in a chaotic system with a dominant reinforcing loop that had violent and disastrous results (Eldridge 1940). See Figure 2.13.
类似的例子还有，19 世纪末，伦敦当局在阿尔伯特桥上张贴标语，上面写着“指挥部队的军官在经过这座桥时请放慢脚步”，因为其他类似的桥梁由于许多人跺脚产生的共振而倒塌。与桥梁的强度相比，每个脚步声本身都很小，但它们合在一起形成了一个足够的加强环，士兵的脚步可能导致悲剧性的非线性共振结果（Cookson 2006）。
In a similar case, authorities in London in the late 1800s posted signs on the Albert Bridge that read, “Officers in command of troops are requested to break step when passing over this bridge” after other similar bridges collapsed due to the resonance created by many stamping feet. Each footfall in itself was small compared to the strength of a bridge, but together they created enough of a reinforcing loop that the soldiers’ steps could lead to a tragic, nonlinear resonant result (Cookson 2006).
图 2.13塔科马海峡大桥灾难性倒塌及该事件的加固回路图。最终，大桥的运动非常剧烈，以至于脱离了加固回路，导致大桥被摧毁
Figure 2.13 The catastrophic collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and a reinforcing loop diagram of this event. Eventually the bridge’s motion was so violent that it broke out of the loop with the destruction of the bridge
萤火虫
一些萤火虫是实现某种非线性共振的混沌系统破坏性小得多的例子。这些小虫子在世界许多地方的夜晚提供精彩的灯光秀，因为每个虫子都会发出闪光来吸引配偶。然而，在东南亚的一些地区和美国南部的大烟山，整个萤火虫种群会同时闪烁，同步进行（NPS.gov 2017）。
A far less destructive example of a chaotic system that achieves a kind of nonlinear resonance can be found in some fireflies. These little bugs provide a wonderful light show in the evenings in many parts of the world, as each one emits a flash of light to try to attract a mate. However, in some parts of Southeast Asia and the Smoky Mountains of the southern United States, entire populations of fireflies will blink at the same time, all synchronized together (NPS.gov 2017).
它们会自行发光，不需要萤火虫指挥员告诉它们何时发光，而是通过一种简单的机制：每当一只萤火虫看到附近的另一只萤火虫发光时，它就会加快速度，比平时更早地发光。通过这种简单的机制，整个系统从混乱转变为共振。
They do this on their own, without any firefly conductor telling them when to flash, by means of a simple mechanism: whenever one firefly sees another nearby light up, it hurries up to flash a little sooner than it would have otherwise. With this simple mechanism, the whole system moves from chaos to resonance.
这里的每只萤火虫都是系统的一部分，具有闪烁腹部光线的行为。当另一只萤火虫（系统的另一部分）看到这种行为时，它会改变自己的内部状态，使其闪烁得比平时更快——当然，其他萤火虫也能看到。结果是，在短时间内，越来越多的萤火虫同时闪烁，直到它们全都同时闪烁。该系统非常混乱，因为它对起始条件非常敏感，而且无法准确判断任何一只萤火虫何时会亮起。然而，由于它们只有一种局部相互作用，整个萤火虫种群很快就会开始产生共鸣：首先是小块区域，然后是大波，然后是全部一起，因为每只萤火虫都会根据所见的情况稍微调整下一次闪烁的时间。
Each firefly here is a part in a system, with a behavior of flashing its abdomen light. When another firefly (another part in the system) sees this behavior, it alters its own internal state to flash sooner than it might otherwise—which of course is seen by other fireflies. The result is that in a short period of time, more and more fireflies are flashing at the same time, until they are all flashing in unison. The system is chaotic in that it is highly sensitive to its starting conditions, and there’s no way to tell exactly when any firefly will light up. However, because of their one form of local interaction, the entire population of fireflies soon begins to resonate: first in small patches, then in big waves, then all together, as each bug slightly adjusts its next flash time based on what it’s seeing.
类似的共振效应可以在哺乳动物心脏、大脑和自然界许多其他部分的神经细胞中发现。它们是非线性效应的极佳例子，非线性效应通过系统中各部分的分布式动作产生共振、同步的秩序。
Similar resonance effects can be found in nerve cells in the mammalian heart, in the brain, and in many other parts of nature. They are excellent examples of nonlinear effects that create resonant, synchronized order out of distributed actions of parts in a system.
循环结构示例
Examples of Loop Structures
有许多系统循环的例子可以说明这些结构如何产生各种（通常是非线性的）影响。我们在这里讨论其中的一些。
There are many examples of systemic loops that illustrate how these structures create various (often nonlinear) effects. We discuss a few of them here.
一个普遍的类别通常被称为“失败的修复”，并以第 1 章中讨论的“眼镜蛇效应”（Siebert 2001）为例。在这种情况下，问题是“眼镜蛇太多了！”，解决方案是“奖励眼镜蛇”，如图2.14所示。这形成了一个良好的平衡循环：随着人们因交出眼镜蛇头而获得奖励，周围的眼镜蛇数量会减少（繁殖下一代的眼镜蛇数量也会减少），因此问题的严重性会降低。
One general class is often called “fixes that fail” and is exemplified by the “cobra effect” (Siebert 2001) discussed in Chapter 1. In that situation, the problem was “too many cobras!” and the solution was “reward for cobras,” as shown in Figure 2.14. This forms a nice balancing loop: as people take the reward for turning in cobra heads, there are fewer cobras around (and fewer to breed the next generation), so the severity of the problem diminishes.
然而，这里还有另一个外循环，如图 2.15所示。这通常被称为非预期后果循环，因为它会创建一个隐藏了一段时间的强化循环，并会以报复的方式重新出现原始问题（或另一个相关情况）。值得注意的是，在这个循环中有一个延迟，由一个弧上的两个井号 ( \\ ) 表示，这意味着这个外循环比内循环发生得更慢。最终的结果通常是问题比开始时更糟糕——而且大量的时间和精力被花在一个虚幻的“解决方案”上。
However, there is another outer loop here, as shown in Figure 2.15. This is often called an unintended consequences loop, as it creates a reinforcing loop that is hidden for a little while and brings back the original problem (or another, related condition) with a vengeance. Notably, in this loop there is a delay, signified by the two hash marks (\\) on one arc, meaning that this outer loop happens more slowly than the inner loop. The result in the end is typically that the problem is worse than when it started—plus a great deal of time and energy have been spent on an illusory “solution.”
现实生活中有很多这种结构的例子：你需要省钱，所以你不定期保养你的汽车。这种方法在一段时间内是有效的，直到那个延迟的外循环追上你，现在你需要花更多的钱来修复一个本来可以以较低成本避免的重大故障。或者，一家公司的一个部门陷入困境，所以一位新经理制定了一系列快速解决方案。收入开始上升，情况看起来很好，而“挽救局面”的经理也得到了晋升。然而，很快长期的意外后果（隐喻中的“养殖眼镜蛇”）开始显现出来。取代晋升经理的人开始忙乱，但现在的情况比以前糟糕得多，他们最终不仅被指责表现不佳，而且还被指责搞砸了前任经理（现在可能是他们的老板）提供的极好局面。忽视潜在的系统性原因和影响的短期观点往往会导致这种失败的修复。4
There are many examples of this structure in real life: you need to save money, so you don’t maintain your car regularly. This works for a little while, until that delayed outer loop catches up with you, and now you need to spend more money to fix a major failure that could have been prevented at a lower cost. Or, a division at a company is in trouble, so a new manager institutes a bunch of quick fixes. Revenue starts to rise, things look great, and the manager who “saved the day” is promoted. However, soon the long-term unintended consequences (the metaphorical “farmed cobras”) begin to become apparent. The person who replaced the promoted manager begins to scramble, but the situation is now far worse than it was before, and they end up being blamed not only for the poor performance but for messing up the terrific situation provided by the previous manager (who may now be their boss). A short-term view that ignores the underlying systemic causes and effects often leads to this kind of fix-that-fails.4
在游戏环境中，在战略游戏中，如果一名玩家快速组建了一支庞大的军队，那么他实际上可能会发现自己处于劣势，因为另一名玩家反而投入了部分资源来研究如何组建更强大的军队。第一个玩家选择了快速路线，但却忽略了因没有考虑长远利益而造成的赤字；他们的“解决办法”没有考虑到那些单个军队效率更高但组建时间更长的军队的价值。第二个玩家避免了快速解决办法（组建一支庞大的军队），而是从长远角度投入资源。在“现在快速组建”和“为未来投资”之间做出选择，就是一个循环结构的例子，这种结构被称为引擎，您将在第 7 章中再次看到它。
In a game context, a player in a strategy game who builds a huge army quickly may actually find themselves at a disadvantage to another player who instead invested some of their resources in researching how to make better troops. The first player took the fast route but ignored the deficit built up by not thinking longer term; their “fix” failed to take into account the value of troops that were more effective individually but that took longer to make. The second player avoided the quick fix (having a large army) by investing their resources with a longer-term view. This choice between “build fast now” and “invest for the future” is an example of a looping structure called an engine that you will see again in Chapter 7.
增长的极限——以及随之而来的崩溃
循环结构的另一个例子是显示增长极限的类（见图2.16 ），该类可以很好地显示非线性结果。这个名称最初来自一本同名的书（Meadows 等人，1972 年），该书旨在对整个世界体系及其增长是否能够持续到 21 世纪进行前瞻性评论。（作者并不乐观。）除了这种特殊用法之外，整个模式都值得研究和理解。
Another example of a loop structure, and one that shows nonlinear results well, is the class that shows limits to growth (see Figure 2.16). This name comes originally from a book of the same title (Meadows et al. 1972) that was intended as a forward-looking commentary on the overall world system and whether its growth could be maintained through the 21st century. (The authors were not optimistic.) Beyond this particular usage, the pattern overall is worth examining and understanding.
我们经常假设，在得到某种结果后，继续做更多能产生这种结果的事情，就会得到一个持续线性增长的结果。我们经常听到这样的说法：“如果我们的业务继续以这种速度增长……”或“如果人口继续以这种速度增长”，这些说法隐含着这样的假设：未来情况会像过去一样继续下去。但事实几乎从来不是这样。原因是，对于每个由强化回路驱动的加速条件（销售额、农作物产量或建造单位数量的增加），都有一个由限制条件驱动的独立平衡回路。这种条件通常是一些对增长必不可少但会随着增长而减少的资源（市场饱和时出现的新客户、土壤中被吸收而得不到补充的矿物质、支付单位费用的能力等等）。
We often assume that given some result, doing more of what led to it will give us a result that continues to increase linearly. We often hear statements like “if our business continues to grow at this rate…” or “if the population continues to grow at this rate” that contain the implicit assumption that things will continue in the future as they have been in the past. This is almost never the case. The reason is that for every accelerating condition fed by a reinforcing loop—increased sales, crop yield, or number of units built—there is a separate balancing loop fed by a limiting condition. This condition is typically some resource that is necessary for and diminished by increasing growth (new customers available as a market becomes saturated, a mineral in the soil taken up and not replenished, ability to pay for units, and so on).
总体非线性结果是曲线缓慢上升，然后快速上升，然后速度变慢，直到再次趋于平稳。图 2.17显示了典型示例，该图显示了自 20 世纪 90 年代末以来小麦产量如何趋于平稳（Bruins 2009）。在这样的全球形势下，导致增长放缓的因素无疑是复杂的，涉及物质、经济和政治资源，但总体效果是一样的：如果有人根据 20 世纪 70 年代或 80 年代数据的线性推断来预测未来，那么十年后他们就会大失所望。
The overall nonlinear result is a curve that rises slowly, then quickly, and then more slowly until it levels off again. A typical example of this is depicted in Figure 2.17, which shows how yields of wheat production have leveled off since the late 1990s (Bruins 2009). The factors contributing to this slowdown in growth are no doubt complex in a global situation like this one, involving physical, economic, and political resources, but the overall effect is the same: if someone predicted the future based on a linear extrapolation from data in the 1970s or 1980s, they would have been sorely disappointed a decade later.
图 2.17小麦产量增长的极限。请注意，产量增长速度很快，然后放缓，呈典型的 S 曲线趋于平缓，而不是保持线性
Figure 2.17 The limits to growth of wheat yields. Note that increased yields accelerate quickly and then slow down, flattening in a classic S curve rather than remaining linear
即使是一些看似简单、可能永无止境的强化循环，其增长也有限制——而且，与修复失败的意外后果一样，这些限制有时会突然出现。1929 年的股市崩盘就是一个典型的例子。在崩盘前的几年里，经济蓬勃发展，股价似乎只朝着一个方向发展：上涨。对于投资者来说，今天买入一些东西，明天再转手卖出获利，这似乎是轻而易举的事。因此，许多投资者赊购股票。只要赊购的成本低于他们卖出时获得的利润，这就是俗话说的“轻松赚钱”。一种称为“保证金购买”的股票购买形式使投资者更容易做到这一点。通过这种方式购买，投资者只需保留他们购买的总股票的 10% 到 20% 的现金储备，假设他们总是可以卖出一些股票（获利）来弥补购买其他股票的任何成本。这实际上意味着，如果你在股票经纪账户中存入 100 美元，你就可以购买价值 1,000 美元的股票。由于股价不断上涨，人们相信你可以随时卖出并获利。许多人通过这种方式致富，这吸引了更多人涌入市场。
Even some seemingly simple and potentially unending reinforcing loops have limits to their growth—and, as with the unintended consequences of fixes that fail, these limits sometimes appear abruptly. A classic version of this is evident in the stock market crash of 1929. In the years prior to the crash, the economy was booming, and stock prices seemed to only go one way: up. For an investor, buying something today that you could turn around and sell tomorrow for a profit seemed like an easy bet. As a result, many investors bought stocks on credit. As long as the cost of the credit was less than the profit they would make when they sold, it was, as the saying goes, “easy money.” A form of stock purchasing called “buying on the margin” made this even easier for investors. In buying this way, an investor only had to keep a cash reserve of 10% to 20% of the total stock they were buying, with the assumption that they could always sell some stock (at a profit) to cover any costs from buying a different stock. This meant, in effect, that if you deposited $100 into a stock brokerage account, you could buy as much as $1,000 worth of stock. Since stock prices were continually rising, the belief was that you could always sell and still make a profit. Lots of people became wealthy this way, which enticed even more people to flood into the market.
当然，增长总是有极限的。1929 年，第一个麻烦的迹象是一些公司在 3 月份报告了令人失望的业绩，这导致市场下跌，投资者对其行为产生了疑虑。然而，到了夏天，市场反弹，这具有讽刺意味的效果，让人们更加确信他们的股票价值股价将继续无限制上涨。然后，在 1929 年 10 月，尽管股价高得惊人，但几家公司报告业绩不佳。这让一些投资者认为，虽然经济形势仍然良好，但也许是时候套现并退出市场了。由于许多人进行了保证金投资，他们必须弥补之前的购买，这意味着他们必须出售更多股票才能做到这一点。随着股价在 10 月下旬开始下跌，投资者不得不出售越来越多的股票来弥补之前的购买，一个新的强化滚雪球循环开始生效（见图2.18）。投资者之前表现出的“非理性繁荣” 5现在变成了恐慌，他们都试图通过尽可能快地抛售来挽救他们能挽救的东西。由于每个人都试图抛售而很少有人买入，价格进一步下跌，强化循环（在这种情况下，推动价格下跌的循环）迅速加速。到年底，股市上涨所积累的价值和财富90%以上被抹去，引发全球大萧条。
Of course, there is always some limit to growth. In 1929, the first sign of trouble came with some companies reporting disappointing performance in March, which caused the market to dip and gave investors pause about their behavior. However, the market rebounded by the summer, which had the ironic effect of making people even more certain that the values of their shares would continue to rise without limit. Then, in October 1929, with stock prices at incredibly high values, several companies reported poor performance. This made some investors think that, while things were still going well economically, perhaps the time had come to cash in and get out of the market. Since so many had invested on the margin, they had to cover their prior purchases, which meant they had to sell more stock to do so. As stock prices began to fall late in October, investors had to sell more and more shares to cover their previous purchases, and a new reinforcing, snowballing loop came into effect (see Figure 2.18). The previous “irrational exuberance”5 exhibited by investors now turned to panic, and they all tried to salvage what they could by selling as fast as they could. With everyone trying to sell and few buying, prices fell even further, and the reinforcing loop—in this case, one driving prices downward—accelerated quickly. By the end of the year, over 90% of the value and accumulated wealth from the stock market rise had been wiped out, ushering in the global Great Depression.
图 2.18导致 1929 年股市崩盘的强化循环。随着投资者失去资本和对市场的信心，他们抛售股票。这导致每股价格下跌，进一步削弱了投资者信心。请注意，虽然所有影响都是负面的，但这是一个强化循环，而不是平衡循环——有时被称为恶性循环
Figure 2.18 The reinforcing loop that drove the stock market crash of 1929. As investors lost capital and confidence in the market, they sold shares. This caused the price per share to drop, which further eroded investor confidence. Note that while all the effects are negative, this is a reinforcing loop, not a balancing loop—one that is sometimes known as a vicious cycle
不幸的是，2017 年的金融状况也出现了类似的例子。根据 Turner (2016) 的说法，次级贷款正在增加，就像 2008 年金融危机之前一样。然而，这一次的贷款是以信用卡和汽车等形式发放的，而不是抵押贷款。“次级”意味着贷款是有风险的，承认许多贷款不会得到偿还，只是因为借款人没有钱。为了弥补这种风险，借款人为贷款支付了更多的利息。贷款风险越大，违约（借款人无法偿还贷款）就越多（见图2.19）。此外，这种情况发生在这样的经济背景下：几十年来（2008 年金融危机并未缓解），美国和全球社会最富有的人手中的资金越来越集中。这意味着有少数人想从中赚取更多的利润他们（已经增加的）财富正在不断增加，还有更多的人需要借钱，即使成本很高。根据对瑞银银行数据的分析，特纳这样描述这种情况：
Unfortunately, a similar example can be seen in the financial situation in 2017. According to Turner (2016), subprime lending is on the rise, as it was prior to the financial crash of 2008. This time, however, the lending is in credit cards and things like cars rather than mortgages. “Subprime” means that the loans are risky, an acknowledgement that many will not be paid back just because those borrowing won’t have the money to do so. To cover this risk, borrowers pay more in interest for the loans. The more risky loans that are made, the more defaults—borrowers not being able to pay back the loans—there are (see Figure 2.19). In addition, this is happening against an economic backdrop in which there has for several decades (unalleviated by the crash of 2008) been an increase in concentration of money among the very wealthiest in U.S. and global society. This means that there are a few who want to make a further profit on their (already increasing) wealth, and there are many more who need to borrow that money even at a high cost. Basing his analysis of figures from UBS Bank, Turner characterizes the situation this way:
随着财富池变得越来越集中，富人和穷人之间的不对称性也越来越大。富人和穷人通常都想投资并获得回报，而穷人通常是借款人。这压低了普通借款人的信誉。再加上低利率环境，投资者都在寻求收益，你就有麻烦了。（Turner 2016）
As the pool of wealth becomes more concentrated, the greater the asymmetry between the haves, who typically want to invest and get a return on their money, and the have nots, who are typically borrowers. That pushes down the creditworthiness of the average borrower. Add in a low-interest-rate environment, where investors are searching for yield, and you have a problem. (Turner 2016)
图 2.19投资者寻求利润来弥补投资违约造成的损失。这种增长的极限是什么？
Figure 2.19 Investors search for profits to offset losses from investment defaults. What is the limit to this growth?
也就是说，财富越集中，持有这些财富的人就越难通过投资来增加财富，因为其他很多人的钱更少，而投资风险也越来越大。这种困难迫使投资者将目光投向越来越远的地方以寻找获利的方法，并越来越愿意承担高风险的投资。这些高风险投资将增加贷款违约率，从而强化投资者的盈利需求，从而使他们的搜索进入风险越来越大的领域（参见图 2.19）。更糟糕的是，这个循环还有另一个组成部分，如图2.20所示：对于借款方（“一无所有”）来说，他们购物的需求（包括食物和房租等必需品）驱使他们借更多的贷款并增加债务。有时人们会感到被迫借入高成本的贷款来偿还他们已有的其他贷款，但这只会让他们的债务进一步增加。由于额外的利息、费用，以及在某些情况下无法偿还这些债务，这个循环变得越来越严重，这些人需要更多的贷款来进一步购买。
That is, the more concentrated the wealth is, the more difficult it is for those holding that money to find ways to increase it via investment because so many others have less money and are increasingly risky as investments. This difficulty pushes investors to look further and further afield for ways to make a profit and to become increasingly willing to take on higher-risk investments. Those higher-risk investments will increase the rate of loan defaults, which reinforces the investor’s need to show a profit, thus driving their search into riskier and riskier territory (refer to Figure 2.19). What’s worse is that there is another component to this loop, as shown in Figure 2.20: for those on the borrowing side (the “have nots”), their need to make purchases (including necessities like food and rent) drives them to take out more loans and increase their debt. Sometimes people feel forced to take out very high-cost loans to cover other loans they already have, but this just leaves them further in debt. Between additional interest, fees, and in some cases not being able to repay these debts, the loop becomes reinforcing, with those same people needing more loans for further purchases.
这两个强化循环都不可持续；随着借贷成本上升和偿还能力下降，两者的增长都受到很大限制。与 1929 年不同，截至撰写本文时，我们还不知道这场金融故事的结局。希望如果我们能够识别和分析我们周围的系统性影响，我们就能防止可能随之而来的最糟糕的危机。
Neither of these reinforcing loops is sustainable; both have strong limits to their growth as the cost of borrowing increases and the ability to pay decreases. Unlike in 1929, as of this writing, we do not yet know the end of this financial story. Hopefully, if we can recognize and analyze systemic effects like this around us, we can prevent the worst of the crashes that may follow.
除了这些关于增长限制的严峻例子之外，当我们在第 7 章讨论游戏设计中循环的使用时，我们还将看到该原则以及其他原则在游戏不公平竞争中的影响。
Apart from these grim examples of limits to growth, we will see the effects of this same principle along with others in uneven competition in games when we discuss the use of loops in game design in Chapter 7.
公地悲剧
另一个从系统角度最容易理解的著名问题是公地悲剧。这个古老的问题最初由 Lloyd (1833) 在现代描述，今天仍然以多种形式存在。Lloyd 描述了这样一种情况，即个人在独立行动时，并没有恶意，但却破坏了共享资源，从而毁掉了他们自己的未来收益。如图2.21所示，每个行为者都有自己的强化回路：他们采取一些行动并获得一些积极的结果。这可以是任何事情，但最初的描述是在村庄里一片对所有人开放的区域放牧动物——被称为“公地”。通过在那里放牧牛羊，个人增加了他们畜群的价值。由于公地对任何人都开放，任何在那里放牧更多牛的农民都会受益更多，因此有这样做的动机。然而，牛吃的草是共享资源。因此，如果太多人试图在那里放牧太多的牛，很快草就会被耗尽，没有人能够使用它。
Another well-known issue best understood from a systemic point of view is known as the tragedy of the commons. This ancient problem, described originally in modern times by Lloyd (1833), still occurs in many forms today. Lloyd described the situation in which individuals acting on their own, and with no ill intent, nevertheless manage to destroy a shared resource—and thus their own future gains. As shown in Figure 2.21, each actor has their own reinforcing loop: they takes some action and gains some positive result. This could be anything, but the original description was of grazing animals in an area open to all in a village—known as the “commons.” By grazing cattle or sheep there, an individual increased the value of their herd. As the commons was available to anyone, any farmer who grazed more cattle there would benefit more and so had an incentive to do so. However, the grass eaten by the cattle was a shared resource. Therefore, if too many people tried to graze too many cattle there, soon the grass would be depleted, and no one would be able to use it.
从系统的角度看，共享资源的使用形成了一个外部平衡循环，与修复失败的意外后果类似。当然，在公地悲剧中，没有一个人会故意让资源对每个人都失效，而且通常没有人使用了太多资源，以至于他们觉得自己有责任。再举一个例子，在街上扔一块垃圾似乎不会给社区增添多少不雅观，而喷出一点烟似乎也不会给整体污染带来多大影响。但是，当与其他所有人的行为结合起来时，环境美或空气质量的损失可能是显著而明显的——即使没有人觉得自己有责任。这是另一个例子，说明寻找还原论的根本原因可能会让你误入歧途：仅仅因为公地上的草被吃掉了太多，或者地上有太多垃圾或空气中有污染，并不意味着只有一个恶棍要对此负责。系统责任通常等同于分布式、分散的责任。认识到这一点以及个人行为如何会产生意想不到的后果是系统思维的一个重要方面。
In systemic terms, the use of the shared resource forms an outer balancing loop not unlike that seen in the unintentional consequences in fixes that fail. Certainly in the tragedy of the commons no single individual intends to make the resource fail for everyone, and it is often the case that no one has used so much of it that they feel at all responsible. As another example, dropping a single piece of litter on the street doesn’t seem to add much to the unsightliness of the community, and puffing out a bit of smoke doesn’t seem to add much to overall pollution. But when taken together with everyone else’s actions, the loss of environmental beauty or air quality can be significant and obvious—even if no one feels responsible. This is another example of how looking for reductionist root causes can lead you astray: just because too much grass has been eaten from the commons, or there is too much trash on the ground or pollution in the air does not mean there is a single villain responsible. Systemic responsibility often equates to distributed, decentralized responsibility. Recognizing that and how individual actions can create unintended consequences is an important aspect of systems thinking.
图 2.21公地悲剧。个人以自己的最佳短期利益行事，但这样做会耗尽共同资源，并减少自己和他人的长期利益
Figure 2.21 The tragedy of the commons. Individuals act in their own best short-term interest, but in so doing they deplete a common resource and reduce long-term gains for themselves and others
在游戏中，当有有限的资源被多人使用时，就会出现公地悲剧之类的系统性情况，尤其是当他们想最大限度地利用这些资源时。游戏中的资源可能是实物，比如金矿或可以用作食物的动物，也可能是任何有限供应且价值随着使用而减少的东西。例如，在具有有效生态系统的游戏中，如果玩家各自杀死几只兔子作为食物，但这样做会导致兔子种群崩溃，这就使他们陷入了公地悲剧的境地。（此外，如果兔子是猞猁的食物，而猞猁也能驱赶其他害虫，那么失去兔子就意味着失去猞猁，这可能会给玩家带来其他后果。）
In games, systemic conditions like the tragedy of the commons can be seen whenever there is a limited resource that multiple people want to use, especially if they want to maximize their use of it. The resource may be physical in the game, like a gold mine or animals that can be used for food, or it can be anything with a limited availability and dwindling value with use. In a game with a working ecology, for example, if the players each kill a few rabbits for food, but in so doing cause the rabbit population to crash, this puts them into a tragedy of the commons situation. (Moreover, if the rabbits are food for lynxes, and the lynxes also keep some other kind of pest at bay, losing the rabbits means losing the lynxes, which can lead to other consequences for the players.)
营养级联
举一个更积极的例子，我们还可以回顾一下将狼重新引入黄石国家公园所形成的营养级联的例子（见图2.22）。这是一系列复杂的强化和平衡循环：狼减少了（平衡了）麋鹿和鹿的数量，而它们数量的减少又降低了它们对树木的平衡作用。因此，实际上，狼与树木之间存在着强化关系，因此（传递性地）与熊、鱼、鸟等也存在着强化关系。
For a more positive example, we can also look back to the example of the trophic cascade created by reintroducing wolves into Yellowstone National Park (see Figure 2.22). This is a complex series of reinforcing and balancing loops: the wolves reduced (balanced) the number of elk and deer, and their reduced numbers reduced the balancing effect they were having on trees. Thus, in effect, the wolves were in a reinforcing relationship with the trees, and thus (transitively) with the bears, fish, birds, and so on.
您会发现和创建的许多系统循环甚至比这个更复杂，也更令人困惑。只要您能记住寻找股票和资源（狼的数量、麋鹿的数量等）并找出它们之间的行为关系（构成循环的箭头），您就能够解开甚至高度系统化、高度复杂的情况。
Many systemic loops you will find and create will be even more complex and potentially confusing than this one. As long as you can remember to look for the stocks and resources (number of wolves, number of elk, and so on) and figure out the behavioral relationships between them (the arrows that make the loop), you will be able to disentangle even highly systemic, highly complex situations.
图 2.22黄石公园重新引入狼群后产生的营养级联，即强化和平衡回路的系统图
Figure 2.22 The trophic cascade resulting from reintroducing wolves into Yellowstone as a system diagram of reinforcing and balancing loops
出现
Emergence
当复杂系统中的强化和平衡回路本身处于动态平衡状态时，它们会产生亚稳态、有组织的系统行为。也就是说，系统中的每个部分都在改变、影响和受到其行为的影响，但整体结构仍然保持稳定（至少在一段时间内）。这种亚稳态会产生一组在任何单个部分中都找不到的有组织行为。例如，每只鸟一起飞行的动作会形成一个亚稳态鸟群，就像每个原子结合在一起的动作会形成一个亚稳态分子一样。同样，上面讨论的萤火虫种群在它们同时闪烁时会产生一种突发效应。这种效应是亚稳态的和持久的，创造了一种令人惊讶的、常常令人叹为观止的视觉特性，这种特性在任何一只萤火虫身上都找不到（或由其引导）。
When reinforcing and balancing loops in a complex system are themselves in a dynamic balance, they create a metastable, organized systemic behavior. That is, every part in the system is changing, influencing and being influenced in their behavior, and yet the overall structure remains stable (at least for a time). This metastability creates a set of organized behaviors not found in any of the individual parts. For example, the action of each bird traveling together creates a metastable flock, just as the action of each atom bound together creates a metastable molecule. Similarly, the populations of fireflies discussed above create an emergent effect when they all flash at the same time. The effect is metastable and persistent, creating a surprising, often breathtaking visual property not found in (or directed by) any single firefly.
这种整体亚稳态是一种突现效应，它是由多个部分的作用产生的。突现效应会创造出与任何单个部分都不同的新属性，而不是由各部分本身的简单相加而产生的。这种亚稳态还使得其他突现效应能够由系统中所有部分的作用产生。
This overall metastability is an emergent effect, one that arises from the action of multiple parts. Emergent effects create new properties that are qualitatively different from any of the individual parts and do not result from a simple sum of the parts themselves. Such metastability also enables other emergent effects to arise from the actions of all the parts in the system.
再举一个例子，在一群鱼中，每个部分（每条鱼）都有内部状态，如质量、速度和方向。一群这样的鱼的总重量不是一个突现属性，因为它只是鱼群中所有鱼重量的总和。然而，形状 鱼群的形状可能很自然，比如当它们为了躲避捕食者而形成一个密集的鱼群（称为鱼饵球）时（见图2.23）（Waters 2010）。虽然每条鱼都有自己的形状，但这种形状本身并不能决定鱼群的形状。相反，每条鱼的位置、速度和方向都会影响（但本身并不能决定）鱼群的形状。
As another example, in a school of fish, each part (each individual fish) has internal state such as mass, velocity, and direction. The overall weight of a school of such fish is not an emergent property, as it is just the sum of the weights of all the fish in the school. However, the shape of the school may well be emergent, as when they form a closely packed school called a baitball to get away from predators (see Figure 2.23) (Waters 2010). While each fish has its own shape, that shape does not itself determine the shape of the group of fish. Instead, each fish’s position, velocity, and direction contributes to (but does not itself determine) the shape of the school.
图 2.23鱼形成紧密堆积的鱼饵球以躲避捕食者。这种形状是一种自然形成的效应（摄影：Steve Dunleavy）
Figure 2.23 Fish forming a closely packed baitball to evade a predator. The shape is a natural emergent effect (Photo by Steve Dunleavy)
鱼群的形状不可能由任何一条鱼决定，也没有任何一条鱼负责决定鱼群的形状；没有中央控制鱼来指挥鱼群应该一起创造的形状，就像一支军乐队一样。认识到没有“鱼在掌管”，没有“中央控制系统”（正如维纳在 1948 年出版的《控制论》一书中所说）是真正掌握出现和系统功能的一个重要方面。它可能是我们集中文化的产物（这一方面有很多积极的影响），但在某些情况下，即使是科学家也很难看清它。举个例子，威伦斯基和雷斯尼克（1999 年）指出，至少在 20 世纪 80 年代，科学家们认为某些聚集在一起的霉菌一定有“创始”或“起搏器”细胞来启动和指导这一过程。这些霉菌从单细胞生物开始，最终发展成大群体，甚至分化成类似器官的结构。在没有某种细胞的情况下，这种情况有可能发生吗？中央控制？多年来，科学家们甚至从未提出过这个问题。他们必须首先学会在没有任何中央控制器的情况下观察分布式系统及其产生的有组织行为。
The shape of the school cannot be found in any one fish, nor is any fish responsible for determining the shape of the school; there is no central controlling fish calling out shapes the fish should create together, like a marching band. Recognizing that there is no “fish in charge,” no “central control system” (as Wiener said in his 1948 book Cybernetics) is an important aspect of truly grasping emergence and systemic functioning. It may be an artifact of our centralized culture (an aspect that has many positive effects), but in some cases even scientists have a difficult time seeing past it. As one example, Wilensky and Resnick (1999) pointed out that at least as late as the 1980s, scientists assumed that certain kinds of molds that aggregate themselves together must have had “founder” or “pacemaker” cells to start and guide the process. These molds start as single-cell organisms and end as large groups that even differentiate into organ-like structures. Is it possible this could happen without some kind of central control? For many years, this wasn’t even a question that scientists asked. They had to first learn to see the distributed system and the organized behavior arising out of it without any central controller whatsoever.
当由其内部各部分之间的多重相互作用而产生的亚稳态结构
When a metastable structure resulting from multiple interactions of the parts within it is
不由其中任何一个部分决定，
not determined by any one part within it,
不基于其各部分属性的线性总和，
not based on the linear sum of the attributes of its parts,
用聚集体（“一群球形的鱼”）来描述比用个体部分和关系（对每条鱼的位置、速度和方向的冗长叙述）来描述更容易，
more easily described in terms of the aggregation (“a spherical school of fish”) than in terms of the individual parts and relationships (a tedious recounting of each fish’s position, velocity, and direction),
然后一个具有自身属性的新事物就出现了。如第 1 章所述，水分子具有电极性，用“块状球体”作为统一的亚稳态结构（即，作为一个独立的东西）来描述比用贡献原子来描述更简单——就像每个原子都有一种电特性，用它自己来描述比用质子和电子或更深入地深入到原子核内带有分数电荷的夸克更容易。
then a new thing with its own properties has emerged. As discussed in Chapter 1, a water molecule has electrical polarity that is simpler to describe in terms of the “lumpy sphere” as a unified metastable structure (that is, as a thing on its own) than in terms of the contributing atoms—just as each atom has an electrical character that is easier to describe on its own than by referring to the protons and electrons or by diving still further down to the quarks with their fractional electrical charges inside the atom’s nucleus.
对于涌现，没有明确的分界线，就像质子或原子周围没有包装一样，但是，组成部分和关系统一为整体所具有的新属性，这是涌现、身份、完整性和系统的明显标志。
There is no clear demarcation for emergence, just as there is no wrapper around a proton or an atom, but the unification of the constituent parts and relationships into new properties held by the whole thing is the telltale sign of emergence, of identity and integrity—and systems.
向上和向下的因果关系
Upward and Downward Causality
在具有涌现属性的系统中，系统内各个部分的相互作用会导致涌现。这就是所谓的向上因果关系：一种新的行为或属性从较低层次结构的分布式动作中涌现出来。股票市场就是一个例子，每个人都在做买卖的决定。这些个人的总体行为可能会导致新的效应：例如，许多个人的购买决定可能会导致整个市场的上涨（以其活动指数、交易量等衡量），从而改变市场的特征和行为，就像所有试图逃避捕食者的鱼都会改变鱼群的形状一样。
In a system with emergent properties, the interactions of individual parts within the system cause the emergence. This is what is known as upward causality: a new behavior or property emerges from the distributed actions of lower-level structures. An example of this is in a stock market, where each individual person is making decisions to buy and sell. The aggregate behavior of these individuals can cause new effects to occur: for example, many decisions to buy by individuals can cause a rise in the overall market (as measured by its indexes of activity, volume of trades, and so on) that changes the character and behavior of the market, just as fish all trying to escape a predator change the shape of their school.
类似地，总体——股票市场作为一个整体或鱼群——可以对其内部各部分表现出下行因果关系。当股票市场中的个人都开始快速抛售时，市场本身就会崩溃——而这种崩溃会影响市场中人们抛售更多股票的决定，从而形成恶性循环。这就是为什么股市泡沫和崩盘以及类似现象看起来如此极端和非理性的原因：其中的个人导致（上行）市场的行为，而市场反过来导致（下行）个人的未来行为。当许多人买入时，就会形成泡沫（出于他们的“非理性繁荣”）；当少数人开始抛售时，他们会迅速形成一个强化循环，影响其他开始抛售的人的行为，市场很快就会崩溃。
Similarly, the aggregate—the stock market as a thing, or the school of fish—can exhibit downward causality on the parts within it. When individuals in a stock market all begin to sell rapidly, the market itself goes into a crash—and this crashing affects the decisions of those in the market to sell more, thus creating a downward spiral. This is why stock market bubbles and crashes and similar phenomena seem to be so extreme and so irrational: the individuals within them are causing (upward) the behavior of the market, and the market is reciprocally causing (downward) the future behavior of the individuals. When many individuals buy, a bubble forms (out of their “irrational exuberance”); when a few begin to sell, they can quickly form a reinforcing loop that affects the behavior of others who also start to sell, and the market quickly crashes.
这种向下的因果关系有助于解释系统行为的令人困惑的现实。它还强调了为什么还原论思维不足以解释复杂系统的工作方式。通过拆开一个复杂系统，你可以揭示向上的因果关系——各个部分如何组合在一起形成整体。但这种还原论方法不会产生只有在整个系统运行并因此影响其较低级别部分时才会出现的上下文向下因果关系。
This downward causality helps explain otherwise baffling realities of how systems behave. It also highlights why reductionist thinking is insufficient to explain how complex systems work. By taking apart a complex system, you can reveal the upward causality—how the parts come together to create the whole. But such a reductionist approach will not yield the contextual downward causality that occurs only when the entire system is in operation and as a result affects its lower-level parts.
组织层级和级别
Hierarchy and Levels of Organization
到目前为止，像“组织层级”这样的短语已经出现过好几次，但并没有给出定义。我们讨论过这些层级以及向上和向下的因果关系，但并没有真正定义这些术语的含义。与涌现一样，组织层级可能是一个难以表达的概念，尽管您可能已经直观地了解了它的含义。
Several times thus far, phrases like “levels of organization” have appeared here without definition. We have talked about these levels and upward and downward causation without really defining what these terms mean. As with emergence, levels of organization can be a difficult concept to articulate, though you may already have an intuitive idea about what this is.
基本思想是，一个运转良好的亚稳态系统会创造一个新事物。这个事物的属性（它的状态、边界和行为）通常是从其内部各部分的相互循环相互作用中产生的。一旦这样一个新事物作为底层部分的集合出现，我们就把它描述为处于“更高层次”的组织。这很容易从夸克到质子到原子到分子，再向上到行星和太阳系、星系，甚至更远的顺序中识别出来。在亚稳态的每个层次上，都会出现新的可识别的、持久的事物。同样，当我们从日常世界深入到分子、原子、质子和夸克的层次时，我们能够识别“较低层次”的系统。每个系统都包含并从其内部的系统产生，并且每个系统（与同一层次的系统）都会在下一个更高层次上创建系统。
The fundamental idea is, again, that a functioning metastable system creates a new thing. This thing’s properties (its state, boundaries, and behaviors) are typically emergent from the mutual, looping interactions of the parts within it. Once such a new thing has emerged as the conglomeration of underlying parts, we describe it as being at a “higher level” of organization. This is easily recognized in the precedence from quark to proton to atom to molecule and on upward to planet and solar system, galaxy, and further on still. At each level of metastability, new recognizable, persistent things emerge. Likewise, as we dive down from our everyday world to the level of the molecule, atom, proton, and quark, we are able to recognize “lower level” systems. Each contains and emerges from the systems within it, and each (with those at the same level) creates the system at the next higher level.
正如 Alexander 等人（1977 年）之前所说，“每个模式（或系统）只能在得到其他模式支持的范围内存在于世界上：它所嵌入的较大模式、围绕它的相同大小的模式以及嵌入其中的较小模式。” 每个系统都是另一个更高级别系统的一部分，与周围的系统相互作用，并包含其中的较低级别系统。（请参阅图 2.24了解其抽象版本。）如前所述，在现实世界中，这些级别至少可以下降到夸克级别——我们不知道最高的综合组织级别在哪里。幸运的是，在游戏中，我们可以选择组织和抽象的级别，尽管正如您将看到的，走一条艰难的道路，使它们更深而不是更浅，是有回报的。
As Alexander et al. (1977) were quoted earlier as saying, “Each pattern [or system] can exist in the world, only to the extent that it is supported by other patterns: the larger patterns in which it is embedded, the patterns of the same size that surround it, and the smaller patterns which are embedded in it.” Every system is a part of another higher-level system, interacts with those around it, and contains lower-level systems within it. (See Figure 2.24 for an abstracted version of this.) As mentioned earlier, in the real world, these levels go down at least to the level of quarks—and we have no idea where the highest integrative level of organization is. In games, fortunately, we are able to choose our levels of organization and abstraction, though as you will see, there are rewards for taking the difficult road to making them deeper rather than shallower.
与边界一样，这些层级并不是绝对的或外部定义的。它们是一种新兴属性，即一组部分的状态、行为和循环共同作用以创建新的可辨别属性。这样，一个层级的系统就成为更高组织层级系统的一部分。
Like boundaries, these levels are not absolute or externally defined. They are an emergent property, whereby the state, behaviors, and loops of one set of parts work together to create new discernible properties. In this way, the system at one level becomes a part of a system at a higher level of organization.
图 2.24高度简化的分层复杂反馈回路描述。回路中每一层的每个部分本身都是由较低层相互作用的部分组成的子系统
Figure 2.24 A highly simplified depiction of a hierarchical complex feedback loop. Each part in the loop at each level is itself a subsystem made up of interacting parts at a lower level
在每个层面上，系统还表现出持久性和适应性。持久性可以被认为是时间的边界。也就是说，持久的系统在自己的边界内随时间自我强化。这种持久性的一个关键部分是系统能够至少在一定程度上适应来自不断变化的环境的新信号或输入。在生物系统中，这种持久性和适应性被称为体内平衡——尽管外部发生重大变化，但仍能将内部条件（在生物体边界内）保持在一个狭窄范围内的能力。
At each level, the system also displays persistence and adaptability. The property of persistence can be thought of as a boundary through time. That is, systems that persist are self-reinforcing within their own boundaries across time. A key part of this persistence is that the system is able to adapt, at least to some degree, to new signals or inputs from a changing environment. In living systems, this persistence and adaptability is called homeostasis—the ability to maintain internal conditions (within the organism’s boundary) within a narrow range despite significant changes outside.
结构耦合
Structural Coupling
这种层级组织（部分内有部分）是组织系统的另一个标志。它也导致了 Maturana (1975) 所说的结构耦合。这就是“反复的相互作用导致两个（或更多）系统之间的结构一致”的情况（Maturana and Varela 1987）。这些系统是更高层次系统中紧密相互作用的部分。每个系统都以某种方式融入其他系统并从中受益。在此过程中，它们相互改变，并创建一个新的、紧密集成的更高层次系统。这方面的例子包括马和骑手、汽车和司机，以及许多共同进化的关系，例如昆虫和花朵随着时间的推移相互影响，这是它们相互关系的一部分。
This hierarchical organization—parts within parts—is another hallmark of organized systems. It also leads to what Maturana (1975) called structural coupling. This is what occurs when “recurrent interactions [lead] to the structural congruence between two (or more) systems” (Maturana and Varela 1987). These systems are parts within a higher-level system that interact closely together. Each benefits from molding itself to the other in one way or another. In so doing, they alter each other and create a new, tightly integrated higher-level system. Examples of this include a horse and rider, car and driver, and many co-evolutionary relationships, as when an insect and flower over time affect each other as part of their mutual relationship.
游戏和玩家也形成了一种结构耦合关系。如果游戏是系统设计的，它将定义一个足够广泛和多样化的状态空间（这是其“二阶”设计的结果，如第 3 章所述），以便它可以随着玩家的适应而适应玩家。正如您将在第 4 章“互动性和趣味性”中读到的那样，这种结构耦合对于在游戏中建立参与度和趣味性非常重要：游戏和玩家之间密切的相互互动可能使游戏很难摆脱相互关联的循环。
A game and player also form a structurally coupled relationship. If the game is systemically designed, it will have defined a sufficiently broad and diverse state-space (a consequence of its “second-order” design, as described in Chapter 3) that it can adapt to the player as the player adapts to it. As you will read in Chapter 4, “Interactivity and Fun,” this structural coupling is important for building engagement and fun in a game: the close mutual interactions between a game and player can make it difficult to break out of the interconnecting loops.
系统的深度和优雅
Systemic Depth and Elegance
讨论了涌现、层次结构和组织级别之后，我们现在可以转向其他难以定义和讨论的领域：系统和游戏中的深度和优雅的概念。
Having discussed emergence, hierarchy, and levels of organization, we can now turn to what are otherwise difficult areas to define and discuss: the concepts of depth and elegance in systems and in games in particular.
如果一个系统的各个部分存在于多个组织层次中，即它们本身是由相互作用的低级部分组成的子系统，那么我们就可以说系统具有深度。考虑这样的系统时，你可以将它们视为每个层次上的统一事物，然后改变视角向上或向下移动一个层次，就像我们在从夸克到水滴的旅程中所做的那样。这些视角的变化有时可能令人眼花缭乱，但这种体验具有如此普遍的吸引力，以至于我们常常认为它和谐而美丽。这就是为什么分形中的自相似性如此令人着迷的原因——分形中每个部分都与整体相似，但却是微型的（见图2.25）：它是系统深度的视觉体现。
A system can be said to have depth when its parts exist at multiple levels of organization—when they are themselves subsystems composed of lower-level parts interacting together. When considering such systems, you can think of them as unified things at each level and then change your perspective to go up or down a level, just as you did in our journey down to quarks and up to drops of water. These changes in perspective may at times become dizzying, but there is something so universally compelling about this experience that we often see it as harmonious and beautiful. This is why the quality of self-similarity seen in fractals, where each part resembles the whole but in miniature (see Figure 2.25), is so captivating: it is the visual manifestation of systemic depth.
图 2.25罗马花椰菜，自然界中众多例子之一，分形自相似性和系统深度的模拟（摄影：Jacopo Werther）
Figure 2.25 Romanesco broccoli, one of many examples in nature and simulation of fractal self-similarity and systemic depth (Photo by Jacopo Werther)
无论是在现实世界系统中还是在游戏中，构建系统内的系统心理模型都可能很困难。一旦你能够构建一个与此层次结构平行的模型，从不同层次的不同角度理解系统，在脑海中上下查看组织层次结构，这是一件非常有趣的事情。在各种形式的艺术、文学等中也是如此，其中一种深思熟虑的赞美是说某样东西“在很多层面上都有效”。这既是对我们自己内部模型构建过程的认可，也是对我们从不同角度看待系统的迷恋的体现。
Whether in real-world systems or in games, it can be difficult to build a mental model of systems-within-systems. Once you are able to construct a model that parallels this hierarchy, it is fascinating to comprehend the system from different perspectives at different levels, looking up and down the organizational hierarchy in your mind. The same is true in various forms of art, literature, and so on, where a thoughtful compliment is to say that something “works on so many levels.” This is both an acknowledgement and a reflection of our own internal model-building process, as well as our fascination in seeing a system from different perspectives.
有深度的游戏
设计包含子系统且每个子系统都有自己的子空间可供玩家探索的游戏系统具有多重优势。深度本身就很有吸引力，即使没有其他原因，它也能使玩家建立多层次的系统思维模型：玩家会随着时间的推移学习每个新子系统而获得奖励，就像打开礼物发现里面还有另一份礼物一样。此外，系统有深度的游戏为玩家创造了巨大的游戏玩法多样性，因为设计师使用系统设计为游戏设置了广阔的空间，而不是创建一条永远不变的自定义内容的狭窄路径。
Designing game systems that each contain subsystems with their own subspaces that can be explored by the player provides multiple benefits. The depth is itself attractive, if for no other reason than it enables players to build multilevel systemic mental models: the player is rewarded for learning each new subsystem over time, much like opening a present to find another present inside. In addition, a game with depth in its systems creates enormous variability for the player to explore as gameplay, since the designer has set up a wide space for the game using systemic design rather than creating a narrow path of custom content that never changes.
在某些情况下，深度游戏可能没有太多规则。简洁但系统的设计使玩家能够更快地掌握结构并从多个角度看待它——尽管这对我们大多数人来说仍然是一种认知负担！
In some cases, deep games may have few rules. The spare but systemic design enables players to more quickly grasp the structure and see it from multiple levels of perspective—though this is still cognitively taxing for most of us!
一个典型的例子就是古老的围棋游戏，如图 2.26所示。数千年来，围棋以其简单、深刻和精妙吸引着人们。围棋仅由一个方形棋盘（通常以 19x19 相交线标记）和一组黑白棋子组成，每种颜色由一名玩家使用。玩家轮流将自己颜色的棋子放在棋盘上的空位上。每个玩家都试图包围并吃掉对方的棋子。当棋盘填满或双方连续放弃时，游戏结束，棋盘上拥有最多领地的玩家获胜。通过这个非常简短的描述，您了解了系统的所有状态、边界和行为：您已经了解了足够多的知识来玩游戏并了解其多个层次的涌现。当然，游戏还有更多内容——人们花费了大量生命，也写了不少书来更全面地理解游戏的决策空间——但这就是深度涌现游戏的运作方式。
A prime example of this is the ancient game Go, shown in Figure 2.26. The game has fascinated people for thousands of years with its simplicity, depth, and subtlety. Go consists only of a square board, typically marked by 19x19 intersecting lines, and a collection of black and white pieces, each color played by one player. Players take turns placing a stone of their color on an empty spot on the board. Each player attempts to surround and capture the other player’s pieces. The game ends when the board is filled or both players have passed in succession, and the player with the most territory on the board wins. With that very brief description, you have all the state, boundaries, and behavior of the system: you know enough to play the game and see its many levels of emergence. There is of course a great deal more to the game—lives have been spent and books written on comprehending the game’s decision-space more fully—but that is how deep, emergent games work.
这类游戏通常被描述为“易学难精”（即布什内尔定律，以雅达利创始人诺兰·布什内尔命名 [Bogost 2009]）。这类游戏一开始只向玩家提供几个状态和规则，随着玩家学习游戏，每个状态和规则都会展开成层次化的子系统，揭示更详细的内部运作。内部系统的深度及其多重视角需要很高的技巧才能理解。
Such games are often described as “easy to learn, difficult to master” (known as Bushnell’s Law, after Atari founder Nolan Bushnell [Bogost 2009]). Such games present the player with only a few states and rules to start, each of which opens up into hierarchical subsystems to reveal more detailed inner workings as the player learns the game. The depth of the internal systems and their multiple perspective requires great skill to comprehend.
最后，优雅是我们在游戏中看到的品质，它融合了游戏的几个特点和游戏体验：
Finally, elegance is the quality we see in games where several characteristics of the game and the gameplay experience are brought together:
整个系统具有亚稳态而非静态的统一性，在认知和情感上都令人满意。游戏每次玩都会发生变化，但其提供的体验总体上仍然保持着熟悉感。玩家能够通过重复游戏继续探索不断变化的游戏空间，而不会感觉到主题或整体体验本身发生了变化，从而获得满足感。
There is a metastable rather than static uniformity to the entire system that is cognitively and emotionally satisfying. The game changes each time it is played but retains an overarching familiarity in the experience it provides. The player is able to continue to find satisfaction in exploring the ever-changing gameplay space through repeat plays without feeling that the theme or the overall experience itself changes.
高级系统定义简单，但层次深度很大。因此，玩家能够逐渐发现这种深度，在此过程中建立游戏的心理模型。这种多层次的组织产生了复杂的行为和玩法，进一步告知玩家并揭示游戏的系统和主题。
The high-level systems are simply defined but have great hierarchical depth. As a result, the player is able to gradually discover this depth, building a mental model of the game along the way. This multilevel organization gives rise to complex behaviors and gameplay that further inform the player and reveal the game’s systems and theme.
深层系统表现出一定程度的对称性或自相似性：每个较低级别的系统都反映了其所属系统的整体结构（如图2.24中的循环形式和图 2.25中的西兰花植物形式所示）。子系统不必与其上级系统完全相同，只要它们足够相似，以便更高级别的系统为学习更详细的系统提供支架即可。这为玩家提供了一种不引人注目的、高度情境化的辅助工具，使他们能够轻松提高理解力并建立游戏的心理模型。随着玩家更深入地探索游戏，他们会有一种积极的感觉，即他们几乎已经知道他们第一次看到的东西。
The deep systems exhibit a degree of symmetry or self-similarity: each lower-level system reflects the overall structure of the system of which it is a part (as shown in loop form in Figure 2.24 and in plant form in the broccoli in Figure 2.25). The subsystems need not be exactly the same as those above them, as long as they are similar enough that higher-level systems provide scaffolding for learning more detailed ones. This creates an unobtrusive, highly contextual aide to the player’s ability to easily increase comprehension and build a mental model of the game. As players explore the game more deeply, they have the positive feeling that they almost already know what they are seeing for the first time.
规则例外或特殊情况等“未解决的问题”很少。此类例外破坏了自相似等级系统的心理对称性，增加了玩家的心理负担——要求玩家专注于记住规则以及如何玩游戏，而不仅仅是玩游戏。
There are few “loose ends” in the form of rules exceptions or special cases. Such exceptions ruin the mental symmetry of the self-similar hierarchical systems and increase the player’s mental load—requiring the player to focus on remembering rules and how to play the game rather than just playing it.
最后，当玩家彻底了解游戏的层次系统，并能够反思这些层次系统（元认知的一个例子）时，他们能够感知和欣赏游戏动态结构中的深度和对称性。此时，游戏不仅在玩游戏时令人愉快和满意，即使在玩家思考游戏规则和系统时也是如此。
Finally, as players have thoroughly learned the hierarchical systems of the game to the point that they can reflect on them (an instance of metacognition), they are able to perceive and appreciate the qualities of depth and symmetry in the game’s dynamic structures. At this point, the game is enjoyable and satisfying not only while it’s being played but even when the players are musing on its rules and systems.
这种程度的优雅是很难达到的。它要求设计师对游戏系统有深入的理解，必须一下子理解所有系统，就像它们被布置好了一样，同时还要让玩家以线性的方式体验它们。
Elegance of this degree is rarely attained. It requires a masterful comprehension of the game systems by the designer, who must apprehend them all at once, as if they were laid out, while at the same time seeing them in linear form as the players experience them.
尽管要达到这种游戏设计的精通水平很难，但我们将在本书中重新讨论涌现、深度和优雅作为系统设计的理想目标。
While this level of game design mastery is a difficult apex to attain, we will revisit emergence, depth, and elegance as desirable targets of systemic design throughout this book.
整体
Wholes
系统由相互作用的组成部分组成，形成更大的整体。整体本身是系统组织中下一个最高层级的一部分。
Systems form greater wholes out of constituent, interacting parts. The whole is itself a part in the next-highest level of systemic organization.
在设计游戏时，最终出现的整体不仅仅是游戏本身。而是由游戏和玩家组成的系统。这个游戏+玩家系统是游戏设计师的真正目标；游戏本身只是实现目标的手段。玩家体验的游戏和玩家在游戏中的行为构成了整个系统。当我们在第 3 章和第 6 章“设计整体体验”中讨论游戏设计方面的系统架构时，我们将回到这个想法。然后你会看到交互性、深度和系统优雅在使玩家能够创造真正有意义的体验方面的重要性。
When designing a game, the ultimate whole that emerges is not just the game itself. Instead, it is the system that is composed of the game and the player. This game+player system is the game designer’s true goal; the game itself is just the means to get there. The game as experienced by the player and the player acting within the game create the overall system. When we discuss the systemic architecture in terms of designing a game in Chapter 3 and Chapter 6, “Designing the Whole Experience,” we will return to this thought. You will look then at the importance of interactivity, depth, and systemic elegance in enabling the player to create a truly meaningful experience.
概括
Summary
为了保持系统的层次性，在了解了系统内的所有部分和交互之后，我们现在可以回到本章开头给出的初始描述。
In keeping with the hierarchical nature of systems, having gone through all the parts and interactions within a system, we can now return to the initial description given at the start of the chapter.
系统是由独立、相互作用的部分组成的整体。这些部分有自己的内部状态、边界和行为，并相互影响。这个整体会随着时间的推移而持续存在，适应外部条件，并具有自己的协调行为，这些行为源于其各部分的相互作用。系统既包含较低级别的系统，又本身是较高级别系统的一部分。
A system is the integrated whole that arises out of independent, interacting parts. Those parts have their own internal state, boundaries, and behaviors by which they mutually affect each other. This whole persists over time, adapts to external conditions, and has its own coordinated behaviors that emerge from the interactions of its parts. The system both contains lower-level systems within it and is itself part of a higher-level system.
请注意，虽然本章开头给出的定义与此定义相似，但前者更自下而上，从部分开始，然后进入系统，而这个定义更自上而下，首先从系统开始。这两种观点是等同的。能够以这种方式切换系统视角非常重要——既是理解和“系统思考”的一部分，也是游戏设计过程的一部分。游戏设计师特别需要能够自下而上、自上而下或介于两者之间的任何方式看待他们的游戏。这是一个特殊的挑战，通过将游戏理解为系统并将游戏设计理解为系统设计，可以最好地应对这一挑战。
Note that while the definition given at the start of the chapter is similar to this one, the first was more bottom-up, starting with parts and going to systems, while this one is more top-down, starting with the systems first. These two views are equivalent. It is important to be able to switch perspectives on systems in this way—both as part of comprehending and “thinking in systems” and as part of the process of game design. Game designers have a particular need to be able to see their games bottom-up, top-down, or anything in between. This is a particular challenge that is best met by understanding games as systems and game design as system design.
后记：思考
Postscript: Thinking About Things
简要回顾一下关于事物、身份和“事物性”的哲学讨论，现在您可以根据系统的扩展定义来考虑之前的讨论，看看这会带给您什么。现在您应该能够将原子和分子视为具有内部结构的系统和统一的事物。这也意味着您可以更全面地理解系统，因为从这个角度看，我们可能无法看到系统。
To return briefly to the philosophical discussion of things, identity, and “thingness,” you can now consider the earlier discussion in light of the extended definition of systems and see where this takes you. You should now be able to see atoms and molecules as both systems with internal structure and as unified things. This also means that you can understand more fully systems as things that we might not otherwise see in that light.
例如，我们的大脑是一个系统，我们的思想似乎是从大脑的功能中产生的统一事物。我们对新事物如何从关系中产生的理解，可能为对看似简单的古代佛教《金刚经》公案的思考提供了答案：“心从无处生”（Seong 2000）。正如 DH Lawrence 对水的诗意沉思一样，事实证明，没有“第三种东西”，没有一个可以识别的单一地方让水变湿，也没有一个可以产生思想的地方——但这些也并非来自“无处”。像鸟群、植物中的分形图案、飓风或无人引导的白蚁建造的巨大建筑一样，像思想这样的复杂系统从组成部分之间无数的关系中产生，成为比这些底层组件更多的东西——并且完全不同于这些底层组件。
For example, our brains are systems, and it appears that our minds emerge as unified things from their functioning. It may be that our understanding of how new things arise from relationships provides the answer to the contemplation of the deceptively simple ancient Buddhist “Diamond Sutra” koan: “Out of nowhere the mind comes forth” (Seong 2000). As with D. H. Lawrence’s poetic musing about water, it turns out there is no “third thing,” no identifiable single place from which water becomes wet, or from which the mind comes—but these are also not from “nowhere.” Like flocks of birds, the fractal patterns in plants, hurricanes, or enormous structures built by unguided termites, complex systems like the mind emerge from the innumerable relationships between the constituent parts to become something more than—and entirely different from—these underlying components.
企业和文化也同样由其组成部分产生。100 年前我的大学里没有人，今天在那里的人可能也不会在 100 年后还在那里：然而，大学本身作为一个整体，一直存在并适应；它曾经存在，并且超越我们任何个人而继续存在。它是一个具有自己非常真实身份的亚稳态系统。家庭、对话或经济也是如此。有些可能比其他的持续时间更长，但每个都是出现过程的结果，是低级部分之间复杂的相互作用和关系创造出它们所没有的新属性的结果。
So too do corporations and cultures arise from their component parts. No one at my university was there 100 years ago, and no one who is there today is likely to be there in another 100 years: and yet the university itself, as a thing, has persisted and adapted; it was there and continues on beyond any of us as individuals. It is a metastable system with its own very real identity. The same is true of a family, a conversation, or an economy. Some may persist longer than others, but each is the result of a process of emergence, of the complex interactions and relationships between lower-level parts creating new properties not found in them.
这引出了我们已经提到过的结论。这个结论最初听起来充其量只是个比喻，但现在通过考察我们所创造的系统，这一结论得到了支持：原子、船只、羊群、文化、大学，甚至婚姻、友谊、对话、思想和龙卷风……这些不仅仅是系统；从任何意义上讲，它们都是事物。仅举两个例子，随着时间的推移，我与配偶的关系以及成千上万的人与大学的关系中出现了亚稳态结构，这些结构在各个方面都与持久性属性相同，我们从虚拟夸克形成质子、质子和电子形成原子、氢和氧形成水的相互作用中观察到了同一性和完整性——事物性。回想一下，从根本上讲，即使是我们认为的固体物质本身的性质也是难以捉摸的。婚姻可能没有质量或形状，但它仍然是一个真实的、非隐喻的东西，就像一张桌子、一台电脑或一滴水一样。
This leads to a conclusion that we have touched on already. It’s one that initially sounds at best metaphorical yet which is now supported by the examination of systems that we have made: atoms, ships, flocks, cultures, universities, and even marriages, friendships, conversations, minds, and tornadoes.… These are all not only systems; they are, in every sense that matters, things. To look at just two examples, there are metastable structures that emerge over time from the relationship I have with my spouse and that many thousands of us have with our universities that are in every way identical to properties of persistence, identity, and integrity—the thingness—we observed from the interactions of virtual quarks in forming protons, protons and electrons in forming atoms, hydrogen and oxygen in forming water. Recall that at its root, even what we think of as solid matter is itself elusive in its nature. A marriage may not have mass or shape, but it is nonetheless a real, non-metaphorical thing every bit as much as a desk, a computer, or a drop of water.
真正令人好奇的是，我们身处系统组织层级中，每个人都是其中的一部分，因此我们常常难以感知系统的新兴属性，我们所属的事物：我们的文化、经济、公司或家庭——更不用说生物群落、地球生物圈或我们现在知道存在的难以想象的广阔宇宙结构中的新兴属性。至少就目前而言，我们似乎不善于识别和解释系统效应，尽管这些效应对我们来说就像鱼儿需要水一样。希望这不是我们物种的局限性，而是一种我们可以学习的技能。系统地看待游戏和游戏设计可以帮助我们创造更具吸引力、更有效的游戏；希望通过这样做，我们也能更深入、更全面地了解我们周围的系统。
The truly curious aspect of this is that, stuck as we are being where we are in the systemic organizational hierarchy in which we are all parts, we often have such difficulty perceiving the emergent properties of the systems, the things, of which we are part: our culture, economy, company, or family—much less the emergence in a biome, in our planet’s biosphere, or in the unimaginably vast cosmological structures we now know exist. We seem, at least for now, to be poor at recognizing and accounting for systemic effects, even though these are for us like water for fish. Hopefully, this is not a limitation of our species but a skill we can learn. A systemic view of games and game design can help us create more engaging, effective games; hopefully in so doing we also come to a deeper, fuller understanding of the systems that are all around us as well.
1.我见过最接近的句子是“这个句子是一个系统”。字母和单词之间的相互作用在简短的陈述中产生了组织性的意义。感谢 Michael Chabin 给出的这个简明定义。
1. The closest I have seen is “This sentence is a system.” The interactions between letters and words creates emergent organized meaning in a brief statement. Thanks to Michael Chabin for this concise definition.
2.在某些情况下，比如细胞膜，确实存在一层皮肤，形成内部和外部的边界。但即使在这里，也有专门的通道，让紧密连接的内部通过边界将物质带入或送出。
2. In some cases, like that of a cell membrane, there literally is a skin that forms the boundary between inside and outside. Even here, though, there are specialized channels that allow the densely interconnected inside to bring things in or send things out through the boundary.
3.这基本是正确的。碗里的水果在成熟和腐烂的过程中确实会在足够长的时间范围内相互作用，但在大多数情况下，我们可以将每片水果视为独立的东西，不会与周围的其他水果相互作用。
3. This is mostly true. Fruits in a bowl actually do interact on a long enough time scale as they ripen and spoil, but for most purposes, we can look at each piece of fruit as a separate thing that doesn’t interact with the other fruits around it.
4.我很遗憾地说，这是我在软件行业多次观察到的一种模式。
4. I am sorry to say that this is a pattern I have observed many times in the software industry.
5.美联储主席艾伦·格林斯潘（Alan Greenspan）在1996年使用过这句话来描述当时市场中的类似情况。
5. A phrase used by Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan (1996) to describe a similar situation in the markets of his day.
第三章
CHAPTER 3
游戏和游戏设计基础
FOUNDATIONS OF GAMES AND GAME DESIGN
本章根据哲学家和设计师的观点，对游戏给出了一些定义。然后，这些定义被用来从系统的角度描述游戏的结构、功能、架构和主题元素。这种系统性观点是后面章节中游戏设计的基础。
This chapter provides some definitions of game, according to philosophers and designers. These definitions are then used to describe the structural, functional, architectural, and thematic elements of games in systems terms. This systemic view acts as a foundation for game design in later chapters.
研究了游戏的基础之后，我们简要回顾一下游戏设计的发展历程，从最初的业余爱好者开始，到现在更具理论性的方法。
Having examined this foundation of games, we look briefly at the development of game design from its hobbyist beginnings to current more theoretically informed approaches.
什么是游戏？
What’s a Game?
从某种程度上来说，定义游戏就像解释一个笑话：你可以这样做，但这样做可能会失去游戏的本质。不过，由于主题是游戏设计，因此你确实需要知道“游戏”一词的含义。幸运的是，几十年来，许多人已经提出了广泛的游戏定义。为了为接下来的讨论提供一些基础，本节对这些定义进行了简要分析。
In some ways, defining game seems like explaining a joke: you can do it, but you risk losing the essence of it in doing so. Nevertheless, because the topic is game design, you do need to know what is meant by the word game. Fortunately, many people have offered up wide-ranging definitions of game for decades. To provide some grounding for the discussion that follows, this section provides a brief examination of these definitions.
赫伊津加
Huizinga
荷兰历史学家约翰·赫伊津哈 (Johan Huizinga) 在其 1938 年出版的《游戏人》（ Homo Ludens，与“智人” Homo sapiens有所区别）一书中（1955 年译成英文）探讨了游戏作为文化关键组成部分的作用 (Huizinga 1955)，该书已成为游戏研究的基石之一。在他看来，游戏和游戏“引人入胜”但“并不严肃”，发生在“日常生活之外”（第 13 页）。此外，游戏“没有物质利益，也不能从中获利”（第 13 页）。最后，游戏“在其适当的时间和空间界限内，按照固定的规则有序地进行”（第 13 页）。
In what has become one of the foundational pillars of academic game study, Dutch historian Johan Huizinga examined the role of play as a key component of culture in his 1938 book (translated to English in 1955) Homo Ludens, or Playing Man (as differentiated from Homo sapiens, “wise man”) (Huizinga 1955). In his view, play and games are “absorbing” but “not serious,” taking place “outside of ordinary life” (p. 13). In addition, play has “no material interest, and no profit can be gained by it” (p. 13). Finally, play takes place “within its own proper boundaries of time and space according to fixed rules and in an orderly manner” (p. 13).
赫伊津哈最为人熟知的可能是游戏发生在一个独立的空间：“竞技场、牌桌、魔法圈、寺庙、舞台、屏幕……”（第 10 页）。近年来，这一观点被浓缩为魔法圈的概念：无论游戏是否与魔法有关，它都发生在为其留出的独立时空，“其中有特殊规则”（第 10 页）。这可能是一张桌子，玩家围绕它重演冷战，就像在《冷战热斗》中一样；也可能是一个假想的宇宙，我的小飞船在其中逃离起义，就像在《超越光速》中一样；或者介于两者之间的任何东西。如果活动引人入胜但与日常生活无关，如果它有自己的规则并发生在自己独立的空间，那么从赫伊津哈的角度来看，它就是一场游戏，其活动就是游戏。正如你将在第 4 章中看到的，关于互动性以及游戏“有趣”的含义，游戏这种无关紧要的特质可能自相矛盾地变得极其重要。
Huizinga is probably best known for calling out that play takes place in a separate space: “the arena, the card-table, the magic circle, the temple, the stage, the screen…” (p. 10). This has been condensed in recent times to the idea of the magic circle: whether a game has anything to do with magic or not, it takes place in a separate space and time set aside for it, “within which special rules obtain” (p. 10). This may be a table around which players replay the Cold War, as in Twilight Struggle; an imaginary universe where my little spaceship is outrunning the Rebellion, as in FTL; or anything in between. If the activity is absorbing but not consequential in terms of everyday life, if it has its own rules and takes place in its own separate space, then from Huizinga’s point of view, it is a game, and its activity is play. As you will see in Chapter 4, on interactivity and what it means for a game to be “fun,” this quality of a game being inconsequential turns out to be, perhaps paradoxically, extremely important.
凯洛瓦
Caillois
在赫伊津哈著作的基础上，法国哲学家兼作家罗杰·凯洛伊斯（发音为“kai-wah”）撰写了《人、游戏和游戏1》（凯洛伊斯和巴拉什 1961 年）。凯洛伊斯同意赫伊津哈关于游戏的一些定义方面的观点，包括以下内容：
Building on Huizinga’s work, French philosopher and writer Roger Caillois (pronounced “kai-wah”) wrote Man, Play, and Games1 (Caillois and Barash 1961). Caillois agreed with Huizinga about some of the definitional aspects of games, including the following:
它们与常规现实是分离的，因此涉及一定程度的想象现实。
They are separate from regular reality and thus involve some amount of imagined reality.
它们既不盈利也不是义务，这意味着没有人必须玩游戏。
They are not profitable or obligatory, meaning that no one has to play a game.
They are governed by rules internal to the game.
它们受到不确定性的影响，因此游戏的进程取决于玩家的选择。
They are affected by uncertainty so that the course of the game depends on the players’ choices.
Caillois 继续列举了四种类型的游戏，现在他在游戏设计圈内因这些游戏而闻名：
Caillois went on to specify four types of games for which he is now known within game design circles:
Agon：竞赛游戏，通常只有一个胜利者。这个词在古希腊语中指竞赛，在英语中可以找到antagonist 一词。
Agon: Games of competition where there is typically a single winner. The word in ancient Greek refers to contests and can be found in the English antagonist.
Alea：一种机会游戏，游戏中骰子或其他随机因素而非玩家的策略或选择决定着游戏的进程。该词源于拉丁语，意为“风险”或“不确定性”。最初，该词源于“关节骨”一词，因为这些骨头被用作早期的骰子。
Alea: Games of chance, where dice or other randomizers rather than the players’ strategy or choices predominate in determining the course of the game. The word is Latin, meaning “risk” or “uncertainty.” Originally, it came from the word for “knuckle bone,” because these bones were used as early dice.
模仿：角色扮演，玩家通过扮演另一个角色来模仿现实生活中的角色，例如“海盗、尼禄或哈姆雷特”（Caillois and Barash 1961, 130）。
Mimicry: Role-playing, where the player mimics real life by taking on another role, such as “pirate, Nero, or Hamlet” (Caillois and Barash 1961, 130).
Ilinx ：一种改变身体感知的游戏，例如旋转。Ilinx在希腊语中意为“漩涡”，因此通过这种游戏可以产生眩晕感和类似的感觉。
Ilinx: Play where your physical perception is changed, as for example by spinning around and around. Ilinx is Greek for “whirlpool,” thus evoking vertigo and similar feelings achieved through such play.
此外，Caillois 还指定了一系列游戏，从有结构化规则的游戏（ludus — 拉丁语，指涉及训练和规则的体育类游戏，也用于指学校）到非结构化和自发性游戏（paidia — 希腊语中的“儿童游戏”或“娱乐”）。上面列出的游戏和游戏类型可能属于ludus-paidia范围内的任何类型。
In addition, Caillois specified a range of play from games with structured rules (ludus—a Latin word for sport-like games involving training and rules and also the word used for schools) to unstructured and spontaneous play (paidia—“child’s play” or “amusement” in Greek). Games and play of the types listed above may be anywhere along the ludus–paidia spectrum.
这些关于游戏和玩法的深入思考继续为游戏设计师和游戏本质的讨论提供信息。除此之外，当代游戏设计师的一些定义也值得注意，并在以后探索游戏系统时参考。
These in-depth thoughts on games and play continue to inform game designers and discussions of the nature of games. In addition to these, several definitions from contemporary game designers are worth noting and referencing later in exploring games as systems.
Crawford、Meier、Costikyan 等人
Crawford, Meier, Costikyan, and Others
克里斯·克劳福德（Chris Crawford）是最早的现代游戏设计师之一，他也曾撰文将游戏设计视为一门艺术（1984 年）。他写道：“这些游戏有哪些共同的基本要素？我认为有四个共同因素：表现、互动、冲突和安全。”（第 7 页）他详细解释了这句话，首先呼应了赫伊津哈和凯洛伊斯的观点，即游戏“是一个封闭的形式系统，主观地代表了现实的一个子集。”（第 7 页）它有“明确的规则”，形成一个系统，其中“各部分通常以复杂的方式相互作用”（第 7 页），这是本书的重点。游戏具有互动性，它“允许玩家通过做出选择来创造自己的故事”（第 9 页），并为玩家提供目标以及障碍和冲突，以“阻止他轻易实现目标”（第 12 页）。最后，克劳福德指出，游戏必须是“一种提供冲突和危险的心理体验，同时排除其物理实现的手段”（第 12 页）。换句话说，游戏发生在赫伊津哈的“魔法圈”中——一个不重要的空间，它有自己的规则，目的是玩游戏。美国教育家约翰·杜威（John Dewey）曾说过，所有游戏都必然保持“一种不服从外部必然性所强加的目的的自由态度”（Dewey 1934，第 279 页）。当游戏与“外部必然性”联系过于紧密时，它们就不再是游戏了。
Chris Crawford, one of the earliest modern game designers, also wrote about game design as an art (1984). He wrote, “What are the fundamental elements common to these games? I perceive four common factors: representation, interaction, conflict, and safety.” (p. 7) He explained this sentence at length, first echoing Huizinga and Caillois in saying that a game “is a closed formal system that subjectively represents a subset of reality.” (p. 7) It has “explicit rules,” which form a system where “parts interact with each other, often in complex ways,” (p. 7) which is the focus of this book. Games possess interactivity that “allows the player to create his own story by making choices” (p. 9) and provide the player with goals along with obstacles and conflict to “prevent him from easily achieving his goal” (p. 12). Finally, Crawford noted that a game must be “an artifice for providing the psychological experiences of conflict and danger while excluding their physical realizations” (p. 12). In other words, games take place in Huizinga’s “magic circle”—a nonconsequential space with its own rules set apart for the purpose of playing the game. Along these lines, the American educator John Dewey made said that all play necessarily retains “an attitude of freedom from subordination to an end imposed by external necessity” (Dewey 1934, p. 279). When games become too connected to an “external necessity,” they cease to be experienced as play.
资深游戏设计师席德·梅尔曾说过，“游戏是一系列有趣的选择”（Rollings and Morris 2000，第 38 页）。这是一个简洁的定义，似乎假设了很多：生活中的许多事情都涉及“一系列有趣的选择”，例如教育和人际关系，但这些通常不被视为游戏（也许是因为它们的结果性质）。尽管如此，梅尔的定义还是很有用的，因为它强调了有意义、知情的玩家选择的必要性，这是游戏与其他媒体形式之间的一个关键区别（Alexander 2012）。
Veteran game designer Sid Meier has said that “games are a series of interesting choices” (Rollings and Morris 2000, p. 38). That’s a pithy definition that seems to assume a lot: many things in life involve “a series of interesting choices,” such as education and relationships, but these are not typically considered games (perhaps due to their consequential nature). Nevertheless, Meier’s definition is a useful one, as it highlights the necessity of meaningful, informed player choices as a key difference between games and other forms of media (Alexander 2012).
另一位深思熟虑且多产的游戏设计师 Greg Costikyan (1994) 给出了这样的定义：“游戏是一种艺术形式，参与者（称为玩家）在追求目标的过程中做出决策以管理游戏代币中的资源。” 在同一篇文章中，Costikyan 指出了游戏不是什么，以此来得出他的定义：游戏不是谜题，因为谜题是静态的，而游戏是互动的。它不是玩具，因为玩具是互动的但没有直接的目标，而游戏是互动的并且有目标。它不是故事，因为故事是线性的，而游戏本质上是非线性的。游戏不同于其他艺术形式，因为那些“针对被动观众。游戏需要主动参与。”
Another thoughtful and prolific game designer, Greg Costikyan (1994), has provided this definition: “A game is a form of art in which participants, termed players, make decisions in order to manage resources through game tokens in the pursuit of a goal.” In the same article, Costikyan noted what a game is not as a way to arrive at his definition: a game is not a puzzle because puzzles are static, and games are interactive. It’s not a toy because toys are interactive without having directed goals, while games are interactive and have goals. It’s not a story because stories are linear, while games are inherently nonlinear. Games are unlike other art forms because those “play to a passive audience. Games require active participation.”
最近，游戏设计师兼作家 Jane McGonigal 给出了这样的定义：“所有游戏都具有四个定义特征：目标、规则、反馈系统和自愿参与。”（McGonigal 2011，第 21 页）McGonigal 并没有像其他人一样明确地提出互动性，但她对“反馈系统”的加入说明了这一关键点。（第 4章“互动性和趣味性”中有更多关于反馈和互动性的细节。）类似地，游戏设计师 Katie Salen 和 Eric Zimmerman 给出了这样的正式定义：“游戏是一种玩家参与由规则定义的人工冲突并产生可量化结果的系统”（Salen 和 Zimmerman 2003，第 80 页）。
More recently, game designer and author Jane McGonigal supplied this definition: “all games share four defining traits: a goal, rules, a feedback system, and voluntary participation.” (McGonigal 2011, p. 21) McGonigal didn’t specifically bring out interactivity as others have, but her inclusion of “a feedback system” speaks to that key point. (There is more detail about feedback and interactivity in Chapter 4, “Interactivity and Fun.”) Along similar lines, game designers Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman provided this formal definition: “A game is a system in which players engage in an artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a quantifiable outcome” (Salen and Zimmerman 2003, p. 80).
游戏框架
Game Frameworks
除了刚刚提出的定义之外，近年来还出现了几个用于理解游戏和游戏设计的著名框架。
In addition to the definitions just presented, several well-known frameworks for understanding games and game design have sprung up in recent years.
MDA 框架
The MDA Framework
第一个也是最著名的游戏框架是力学-动力学-美学 (MDA) 框架 (Hunicke 等人，2004)。这些术语在这个框架中具有特定含义，如原始论文中所定义：
The first and possibly best-known of the game frameworks is the Mechanics-Dynamics-Aesthetics (MDA) framework (Hunicke et al. 2004). These terms have specific meanings in this framework, as defined in the original paper:
机制在数据表示和算法的层面上描述游戏的特定组成部分。
Mechanics describes the particular components of the game, at the level of data representation and algorithms.
Dynamics describes the run-time behavior of the mechanics acting on player inputs and each other’s outputs over time.
美学描述的是玩家与游戏系统互动时所引起的理想情感反应。
Aesthetics describes the desirable emotional responses evoked in the players when they interact with the game system.
该框架的一个关键点是，玩家通常首先从游戏的美学角度来理解游戏，然后是游戏的动态，最后是游戏的机制。MDA 框架认为，与玩家不同，游戏设计师首先通过游戏的机制来理解游戏，然后是动态，最后是美学。该模型的部分目的是试图让设计师首先考虑美学而不是机制。然而，在实践中，不同的游戏设计师会从其中任何一个角度开始工作，这取决于他们自己的风格和他们面临的设计限制。
A key point of this framework is that players typically understand a game from its aesthetics first, then the game’s dynamics, and finally its mechanics. The MDA framework posits that in contrast to players, game designers see their games first via their mechanics, then the dynamics, and finally the aesthetics. Part of the point of the model is to try to get designers to think of aesthetics rather than mechanics first. In practice, however, different game designers work from any of these as a starting point, depending on their own style and the design constraints they face.
MDA 模型中固有的另一个重要观点是，只有游戏机制完全由设计师直接控制。设计师使用机制为游戏的动态奠定基础，但并不直接创造动态。这指向对设计师任务的系统理解，即指定各个部分以创建循环以实现所需的整体（本章后面将更详细地讨论）。
Another important point inherent in the MDA model is that only a game’s mechanics are wholly in the designer’s direct control. The designer uses the mechanics to set the stage for the game’s dynamics but does not create the dynamics directly. This points toward a systemic understanding of the designer’s task in specifying the parts to create loops to enable the desired whole (discussed in more detail later in this chapter).
除了玩家和设计师如何对待游戏的线性观点之外，尽管这是早期游戏设计理论的一个典型例子，但正如其他设计师所指出的那样，机制、动态和美学这些术语本身就存在问题。机制是游戏设计师经常使用的术语，指的是经常出现的游戏“块”（Lantz 2015）和 Polanksy（2015）所说的“游戏设备”，例如 52 张牌的牌组、回合顺序、跳跃和双跳。这个定义本身很模糊，一些设计师只将最具体的操作（例如，打出一张牌，左键单击跳跃）称为机制，而其他设计师则包括更复杂的操作集合，例如平衡循环效果，如马里奥赛车中的蓝色贝壳（Totilo 2011）。这里的区别在于“块大小”，因此可能有些灵活。然而，在 MDA 框架中，机制包括其中的一些，但不是全部；机制包括游戏棋子和规则，但不包括它们的组合方式。这是一个有用的区别，但不幸的是，以这种方式使用“力学”这个术语与现有的用法相冲突。
Apart from the linear view of how players and designers approach games, and despite being a strong example of early game design theory, as other designers have noted, the terms mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics are themselves problematic. Mechanics is a term often used by game designers to refer to commonly recurring “chunks” of gameplay (Lantz 2015) and what Polanksy (2015) called “ludic devices,” such as the 52-card deck, turn order, jump, and double-jump. This definition is itself hazy, with some designers referring to only the most specific actions (for example, play a card, left-click to jump) as mechanics and others including more complex aggregations of actions, such as balancing loop effects like the blue shell in Mario Kart (Totilo 2011). The difference here is one of “chunk size” and thus may be somewhat elastic. In the MDA framework, however, mechanics include some but not all of these; mechanics include game pieces and rules but not how they combine. This is a useful distinction, but unfortunately, using the term mechanics in this way collides with preexisting usage.
同样，MDA 使用美学作为艺术术语，旨在考虑玩家的整体游戏体验，但不幸的是，这个词已经具有与视觉美学相关的强烈含义。这两者之间的混淆很常见，不幸的是，这往往导致游戏开发者将注意力集中在游戏的视觉“外观和感觉”上，而不是玩家的整体体验上。
Similarly, MDA uses aesthetics as a term of art intended to take into account the player’s entire game experience, but unfortunately, the word already has strong meaning related to visual aesthetics. Confusion between these two is common and, unfortunately, often results in driving a focus among game developers on a game’s visual “look and feel” rather than on the player’s overall experience with it.
尽管存在这些困难（或者至少要记住这些困难），MDA 仍是游戏设计理论的一个有益进步，有助于为更系统地理解游戏和游戏设计奠定基础。
Despite these difficulties—or at least keeping them in mind—MDA is a useful advance in game design theory that helps set the stage for a more systemic understanding of games and game design.
FBS 和 SBF 框架
The FBS and SBF Frameworks
与 MDA 框架类似的是早期的模型，称为功能-行为-结构 (FBS) 本体 (Gero 1990)。大多数游戏设计师通常不使用 FBS（甚至不知道），因此我们在这里不花太多时间讨论它。然而，它确实在 MDA 的三层结构与对游戏设计的更系统理解以及设计作为一种通用活动在游戏领域之外如何被视为之间架起了一座桥梁。
Similar to the MDA framework is an earlier model known as the Function-Behavior-Structure (FBS) ontology (Gero 1990). FBS is not typically used by (or even known to) most game designers, so we don’t spend a lot of time on it here. It does, however, provide something of a bridge between MDA’s three-layer structure to a more systemic understanding of game design and how design as a generic activity is considered outside the realm of games.
该框架具有与 MDA 类似的三部分结构，尽管顺序颠倒，最高或最面向用户的部分在前，最具技术性的部分在后：
This framework has a similar three-part structure to MDA, albeit inverted with the highest or most user-facing part first and the most technical last:
功能：物体的目的或目的论——它被设计和创造的原因。功能总是有意设计的结果。
Function: An object’s purpose or teleology—why it was designed and created. The function is always the result of intentional design.
行为：对象的属性和特定领域操作，这些属性和操作源自其结构并允许其实现其功能。行为可能会随时间而改变，以实现对象的设计功能。
Behavior: An object’s attributes and domain-specific actions that are derived from its structure and allow it to achieve its function. The behavior may change over time in order to fulfill the object’s designed function.
结构：物体的物理特性，即组成物体的物理部分和关系。结构不会改变，但它可能会改变物体的行为。例如，任何可以用拓扑、几何或材料表达的东西。
Structure: An object’s physicality, the physical parts and relationships that make it up. The structure does not change, though it may allow the behavior of the object to change. Examples of this include anything that can be expressed in topology, geometry, or material.
FBS 最初来自人工智能领域，是一种表示面向设计的知识和一般设计过程的方式。目的论方面在各种物理对象设计中通常很重要，但在游戏设计中却不是主要主题。如今，这个框架在游戏设计中几乎无人知晓，尽管它和许多变体（Dinar 等人，2012 年）在其他设计和设计研究领域得到广泛应用。与 MDA 一样，FBS 模型并不是过于系统化的，但它为系统理解游戏设计（以及一般设计）提供了有用的指针。
FBS originally came from the field of artificial intelligence as a way of representing design-oriented knowledge and the process of design in general. The teleological aspect is one that is often important in various kinds of physical object design but not one that is a major topic in game design. Today this framework is all but unknown in game design, though it and many variants (Dinar et al. 2012) are widely used in other areas of design and design research. Like MDA, the FBS model is not overtly systemic, but it provides useful pointers toward a systemic understanding of game design (and design in general).
后来的通用设计建模语言将 FBS 反转为SBF（结构-行为-功能），并添加了重要的设计/编程语言和系统组件（Goel 等人，2009 年）。FBS 是自上而下的，而 SBF 则是一种自下而上的框架。SBF 是对设计对象和设计过程的分层描述，以建模语言的形式表示，从各个组件及其操作（系统中的部件和行为）开始，通过行为状态和转换，并根据这些行为定义功能模式。SBF 表示的每个级别都有一个组件，它结合了结构、行为和功能方面，一直到整数和其他基本表示的基本级别。
A later general design modeling language inverted FBS to be SBF (Structure-Behavior-Function) and added important design/programming language and systemic components (Goel et al. 2009). Whereas FBS is top-down, SBF is a more bottom-up framework. SBF is a hierarchical description of both designed objects and the design process represented in the form of a modeling language that starts with the individual components and their actions—the parts and behaviors in the system—works up through behavioral states and transitions, and defines functional schemas in terms of those behaviors. At each level of the SBF representation is a component that incorporates structural, behavioral, and functional aspects, down to the base level of integers and other fundamental representations.
虽然 FBS 和 SBF 本身不是游戏设计或游戏描述框架（或者特别适用于游戏设计），但它们为从 MDA 和类似流行框架到更系统的游戏和游戏设计视图提供了有用的桥梁。
While FBS and SBF are not themselves game design or game description frameworks—or particularly applicable to game design—they provide a useful bridge from MDA and similar popular frameworks to a more systemic view of games and game design.
其他框架
Other Frameworks
各种设计师和作者构建了许多其他框架，以帮助阐明游戏设计师在创建游戏时做什么以及他们如何进行游戏。尽管这些框架是临时的和非系统的，但其中一些已被证明对游戏设计师有用。也就是说，它们更多的是基于实践的经验法则的积累（通过实践获得），而不是系统理论；它们是有用的描述工具，而不是要覆盖的领域的地图。如果其他框架或工具可以帮助您创建更好的游戏，请使用它们！这里使用的系统方法补充并包括其他方法，但这并不意味着其他方法没有用处。
Various designers and authors have constructed many other frameworks to help articulate what game designers do when they create games and how they go about doing so. Some of these have proved useful to game designers despite being ad hoc and nonsystemic. That is, they are more of an accumulation of rules of thumb based in praxis (informed by practice) than systemic theory; they are helpful descriptive tools rather than maps of the territory to be covered. If other frameworks or tools help you create better games, use them! The systemic approach used here complements and includes others, but this does not mean other approaches are not useful.
总结游戏定义
Summing Up Game Definitions
综合迄今为止讨论过的想法、定义和框架，我们可以强调一些共同的元素：
Bringing together the ideas, definitions, and frameworks discussed so far, we can highlight some of the elements that are common:
游戏是一种在自己的环境中发生的体验，与生活的其他部分（“魔法圈”）分离。
A game is an experience that takes place in its own context, separated from the rest of life (the “magic circle”).
游戏有其自己的规则（无论是正式的，如ludus，还是默契而动态的，如paidia）。
Games have their own rules (whether formal, as ludus, or tacit and dynamic, as paidia).
游戏需要自愿、非义务的互动和参与（而不仅仅是观察）。
Games require voluntary, non-obligatory interaction and participation (not simply observation).
它们为玩家提供有趣且有意义的目标、选择和冲突。
They provide players with interesting, meaningful goals, choices, and conflict.
游戏以某种可识别的结果结束。正如 Juul (2003) 所说，游戏的一个组成部分是“结果的价值化”——即某些结果被认为比其他结果更好，通常被编入游戏的正式规则中。
A game ends with some form of recognizable outcome. As Juul (2003) put it, a component is “valorization of the outcome”—that is, the idea that some outcomes are considered better than others, typically codified in the game’s formal rules.
游戏作为设计过程的产物，具有以某种技术形式（无论是数字的还是物理的）实现的特定部分；由这些部分的行为交互形成的循环；以及在与玩家互动时游戏中的体验式（动态的、戏剧性的）整体。
Games as a product of a design process have specific parts that are implemented in some form of technology (whether digital or physical); loops formed by the behavioral interactions of those parts; and experiential (dynamic, dramatic) wholes in the game as played when interacting with the player.
当然，关于上述每个观点，都有一些争论和例外。如果你和朋友一起玩真钱扑克，这真的是一个独立的背景吗，就像 Huizinga 和 Caillois 所说的那样，还是这只是指出魔法圈是多孔的，与现实世界有多个接触点？所有游戏都需要冲突吗？每场游戏都必须有结局吗？许多大型多人在线游戏 (MMO) 的核心原则之一是，即使任何玩家停止游戏，游戏世界仍会继续。这些特征可能是典型的，但不一定是规范性的。
There are, of course, arguments and exceptions about each of these points. If you are playing Poker with friends for real money, is that truly a separate context, as Huizinga and Caillois said, or does this just point out that the magic circle is porous, having multiple points of contact with the real world? Do all games require conflict? Must every game have an end? Many massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) have as one of their central tenets that the game world continues even after any player stops playing. It may be then that these characteristics are typical but not necessarily prescriptive.
哲学家路德维希·维特根斯坦 (Ludwig Wittgenstein) (1958) 曾撰文探讨寻找所有游戏所共有的定义特征。他在评论中劝阻读者不要试图找到一个涵盖所有游戏的定义。他不鼓励“一定有一些共同点，否则它们就不会被称为‘游戏’”的想法。相反，他指出，在寻找一个定义，“你不会看到所有人都有的共同点，而是相似之处、关系，以及一系列相似之处……经过一番考察，我们看到了一个复杂的相似性网络，它们相互重叠、纵横交错”（第 66 部分）。
To that point, the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (1958) wrote about the search for defining characteristics that are shared by all games. In his comments, he dissuaded the reader from trying to find one definition that covers all games. He discouraged the thought that “there must be something common, or they would not be called ‘games.’” Instead, he noted that in looking for a definition, “you will not see something that is common to all, but similarities, relationships, and a whole series of them at that.…The result of this examination is [that] we see a complicated network of similarities overlapping and criss-crossing” (Segment 66).
维特根斯坦的“相似性网络”让人想起亚里士多德的“原因”，它作为一种组织原则，使事物不至于成为“一堆废料”，DH劳伦斯的“第三事物”使水变湿，以及亚历山大的“无名性质”，这些概念在第 1 章“系统基础”和第 2 章“定义系统”中进行了讨论。与寻求一成不变的定义特征或建立临时框架不同，这些关系的普遍重要性（“相似性网络”）是对游戏和其他一切的系统理解的重要提示。
Wittgenstein’s “network of similarities” recalls Aristotle’s “cause” that acts as an organizing principle to keep things from being “a mere heap,” D. H. Lawrence’s “third thing” that makes water wet, and Alexander’s “quality without a name,” discussed in Chapter 1, “Foundations of Systems,” and Chapter 2, “Defining Systems.” Rather than seeking hard-and-fast defining characteristics or building up ad hoc frameworks, the pervasive importance of these relationships, the “network of similarities,” is a big hint about the systemic understanding of games—and everything else.
游戏的系统模型
A Systemic Model of Games
考虑到上述定义以及对系统的理解，可以创建一个新的、更具信息量的游戏系统模型。这里介绍的模型旨在描述性，而不是规定性：该模型代表了维特根斯坦所说的所有游戏中“复杂的相似性网络”的元素，而不是游戏设计师无法超越的限制。这个框架的结构是系统性的，通过帮助您创建一个明确的一般游戏和您想要创建的特定游戏的心理模型，阐明了游戏设计的实践。
Taking the above definitions into account along with an understanding of systems enables the creation of a new and more informative model of games as systems. The model presented here is intended to be descriptive, not prescriptive: this model represents elements of Wittgenstein’s “complicated network of similarities” among all games rather than limits beyond which no game designer can go. This framework is systemic in its structure, clarifying the practice of game design by helping you create a well-defined mental model of games in general and of particular games you want to create.
设计师经常会遇到设计从何入手或迷失在他们想要表达的想法中的问题。这个系统模型提供了重要的结构和组织指南，让设计师能够专注于正在设计的游戏。可以将其视为构建游戏的脚手架，而不是阻碍您设计想要创建的内容的束缚。
Designers often have trouble finding where to get started with a design or not getting lost in the fog of an idea that they want to articulate. This systemic model provides important structural and organizational guides that allow you as a designer to focus on the game you’re trying to design. Think of this as scaffolding for constructing games, not as a straitjacket that keeps you from designing what you want to create.
游戏的系统组织
Systemic Organization of Games
从最高层次开始，游戏是一个具有两个主要子系统的系统：游戏本身和玩家（或多个玩家），如图3.1所示。（这与你之前在本书中看到的图形有着惊人的相似之处，这并不奇怪。）
Starting at the highest level, the game as played is a system that has two primary subsystems: the game itself and the player (or multiple players), as shown in Figure 3.1. (It should be no surprise that this bears a striking resemblance to figures you have seen before in this book.)
本章详细探讨了游戏子系统中三个级别的组件以及它们如何映射到游戏的系统视图：
This chapter explores in detail three levels of components within the game subsystem and how they map to a systemic view of games:
零件：基本部件和结构部件。
Parts: Fundamental and structural components.
循环：由结构实现并由各部分构建的功能元素。
Loops: Functional elements enabled by the structure and built from parts.
整体：由功能元素、环路等产生的建筑和主题方面。
Whole: Aspects of architecture and theme arising from the functional elements, the loops.
本章仅简要介绍玩家作为游戏的一个子系统；您将在第 4 章中看到更多细节。
The player as a subsystem of the game is only briefly covered in this chapter; you will see more details in Chapter 4.
从系统角度来看，常见的结构组件是游戏系统的各个部分，每个部分都有自己的内部状态和行为，如第 2 章所述。游戏的功能元素是由这些部分的行为相互关联以及它们如何组合在一起构建游戏循环而创建的。最后，架构和主题元素是整体的不同方面，它们从各部分的系统循环交互中产生。
In systems terms, the common structural components are the game system’s parts, each with its own internal state and behavior, as described in Chapter 2. The functional elements of the game are created by the interconnected effects of these parts’ behaviors and how they come together to construct game loops. Finally, the architectural and thematic elements are different sides of the whole that emerge from the systemic looping interactions of the parts.
游戏的总体目的和行动就是游戏玩法。这是通过结构、功能、建筑和主题元素的突发效果传达给玩家的。第 4 章详细讨论了这种沟通所采用的形式。
The overall purpose and action of the game is its gameplay. This is communicated to the player as an emergent effect of the structural, functional, architectural, and thematic elements. The forms that this communication takes are examined in detail in Chapter 4.
玩家是更大系统的一部分
The Player as Part of a Larger System
玩家是游戏的同伴：没有玩家，游戏本身仍然存在，但游戏玩法，即有趣的体验，只有当游戏和玩家结合在一起时才存在（因此这里使用了“游戏+玩家”的术语）。
The player is the companion to the game: without the player, the game itself still exists, but gameplay, the playful experience, exists only when game and player come together (thus the “game+player” terminology used here).
当然，游戏可能设计为单人、双人或小群人，甚至同时供数千人玩。传统上，大多数游戏都是为多人设计的；直到电脑作为玩家出现后，“单人游戏”（即一个人与数字游戏互动）才变得流行起来。
Games may of course be designed for a single player, two or a small group of players, or even many thousands of players at the same time. Traditionally, most games have been designed for multiple players; it is only with the advent of computers-as-players that “single-player games” (meaning a single human interacting with the digital game) have become popular.
玩家通常在游戏中具有某种代表和身份。这可能是一个明确的角色，通常称为化身，它定义了玩家可以在游戏中使用的身体和功能属性。或者玩家可以由一个聚合化身来表示，例如一艘海盗船，包括船长、船员和枪支；或者根本不是可见的，是指挥一个小村庄或大帝国的“看不见的手”。
Players typically have some sort of representative and identity within a game. This may be an explicit persona, often called an avatar, which defines the physical and functional attributes that the player can use in the game. Or the player may be represented by an aggregate avatar, such as a pirate ship, including its captain, crew, and guns; or by nothing visible at all, being the “invisible hand” directing a small village or great empire.
您将在第 4 章中更详细地了解游戏+玩家系统中玩家部分中的子系统。目前，关键点如下：
You will see more about the subsystems within the player portion of the game+player system in more detail in Chapter 4. For now, the key points are as follows:
玩家和游戏都是更大系统的一部分。
Both the player and the game are parts within a larger system.
如果没有人类玩家，游戏就没有任何实用性或目的；脱离游戏体验，它实际上不算是一个游戏。
Without a human player, the game has no utility or purpose; it is not really a game outside the played experience.
玩家在游戏中作为现实模型的一部分出现，就像玩家在玩游戏的过程中构建游戏的心理模型一样。（回想一下第 2 章中的讨论，模型必然比“真实事物”更抽象。这对于玩家和游戏来说都是如此，因为他们相互建模。）这种共同表征关系使游戏和玩家之间的互动关系成为可能，并创造了有趣的体验。
The player is represented within the game as part of its model of reality, just as the player constructs a mental model of the game as part of play. (Recall from the discussion in Chapter 2 that a model is necessarily more abstract than the “real thing.” This is true of both player and game as they model each other.) This co-representational relationship enables the interactive relationship between game and player and the creation of the playful experience.
游戏的结构部分
Structural Parts of a Game
和任何其他系统一样，每个游戏都有自己独特的部分。这些是表征标记和在其上运行的规则。在后面的章节中，您将看到它们作为单个游戏中的特定元素。现在，将它们视为游戏中常见的结构（游戏中作为系统的部分），每个游戏中的表达方式都不同。
Like any other system, each game has its own particular parts. These are representational tokens and rules that operate on them. In later chapters, you will see these as specific elements within individual games. For now, consider them as structures that are common to games—the parts in the game as a system—that are expressed differently in every game.
代币
每个游戏都有代表游戏状态不同方面的代表性对象。这些标记本身通常没有意义；它们是形象化和表征性的，是游戏结构的一部分，但不是游戏内部模型进行的任何世界模拟的功能部分。
Every game has representative objects that denote the different aspects of the game state. These tokens are not typically meaningful in themselves; they are figurative and representational, being part of the structure of the game but not, for example, functional parts of any world-simulation done by the game’s internal model.
令牌用于根据游戏环境中可接受的含义将游戏的当前状态和状态变化传达给玩家，反之亦然。这些令牌可能是以下任何一种：
Tokens are used to communicate current state and changes in state from the game to the player and vice versa by their accepted meaning within the context of the game. These tokens may be any of the following:
其表现形式高度概念化，例如围棋中的黑白棋子
Highly conceptual in their representation, such as the black and white pieces in Go
半具象的，例如国际象棋中描绘的中世纪皇室棋子
Semi-representational, such as the medieval royalty pieces depicted in Chess
与可识别的现实世界物体的对应关系非常详细，就像许多角色扮演游戏中武器和盔甲的全面规格一样
Detailed in their correspondence to recognizable real-world objects, as with the comprehensive specifications of weapons and armor in many role-playing games
代币在某种程度上必然具有象征意义，因为没有一款游戏能够完全代表整个世界。1:1 比例的全保真地图毫无用处，而一款试图完全逼真的游戏会离开魔法圈，不再是游戏。
Tokens are to some degree necessarily figurative in their representation, as no game fully represents the world. A map that has full fidelity at a 1:1 scale is of no use, and a game that attempts full verisimilitude leaves the magic circle and ceases to be a game.
游戏代币定义了游戏中的“名词” - 即可以在游戏中进行操纵的所有对象 - 包括以下内容：
Game tokens define the “nouns” in the game—that is, all the objects that can be manipulated as part of play—and include the following:
如上所述，球员的代表
The player’s representation, as discussed above
独立单位（如围棋、国际象棋和战争游戏中的单位），可以独立行动或由玩家在游戏过程中使用
Independent units (as in Go, Chess, and war games) that act on their own or that the player uses as part of the gameplay
游戏发生的世界，包括任何具有自己状态的部分（从国际象棋中的黑白方格到数字战略游戏中的复杂地形和地理）
The world in which the game takes place, including any divisions that have their own state (from black and white squares in Chess to complex terrain and geography in digital strategy games)
游戏中使用的任何资源，例如《大富翁》中的金钱或《卡坦岛》中的小麦、绵羊和木材
Any resources to be used in the game, such as money in Monopoly or wheat, sheep, and wood in Settlers of Catan
游戏中的非物质对象，包括玩家回合的概念（玩家在游戏中行动的顺序和频率）、一手牌的组成、玩家可以携带多少物品、玩家可以掷多少个骰子，等等
Nonmaterial objects in the game, including the concept of a player’s turn (the order and frequency with which players may act in the game), what constitutes a hand of cards, how many items a player may carry, how many dice a player gets to roll, and so on
简而言之，游戏中任何具有状态和行为的事物都是它的令牌之一，游戏中所有维持状态并具有行为的事物都必须用令牌或其他令牌的集合来表示。
In short, anything in the game that has state and behavior is one of its tokens, and everything that maintains state and has behavior in the game must be represented by a token or as an aggregate of other tokens.
虽然游戏令牌必然是象征性的，但它们的状态和行为也非常精确。棋子总是有一个特定的位置 - 它存在于棋盘上的一个且仅一个方格中 - 并且有完全指定的移动或攻击方式。除了规则之外，游戏令牌是任何游戏所需的精确规范。它们每个都始终具有确定的状态和行为。这对于玩家和世界的表现以及游戏中的任何其他对象都同样适用。玩家可以在游戏中飞行吗？跳过山脉吗？游戏世界中有山脉吗？设计师想要包含的每个概念都必须首先详细指定并包含在游戏的令牌和规则中，您将在第 8 章“定义游戏部分”中详细了解这个过程。
While game tokens are necessarily symbolic, they are also highly precise in their state and behavior. A Chess piece always has a specific location—it exists in one and only one square on the board—and has entirely specified ways it can move or attack. Along with rules, game tokens are the precise specification needed for any game. They each have definitive state and behaviors at all times. This is as true for the player’s and world’s representation as for any other objects in the game. Can the player fly in the game? Leap over mountain ranges? Are there mountain ranges in the game world? Each such concept the designer wants to include must first be specified in detail and contained in the game’s tokens and rules, a process you will see in detail in Chapter 8, “Defining Game Parts.”
规则
游戏代币是游戏中的象征性对象，而规则则是过程规范。它们被玩家认知地理解，并在计算机游戏中以代码形式表达。规则通过指定代币的行为来确定游戏的运作方式。
Whereas game tokens are symbolic objects within the game, rules are process specifications. They are understood cognitively by players and are expressed in code in computer games. Rules determine how a game operates by specifying the behaviors of the tokens.
指定可接受的游戏内操作
规则有助于创造一个有趣的空间，让玩家可以做出不同的行为。撒谎、偷窃或杀人通常是社会所不接受的，但在游戏中，这些行为可能是完全可以接受的，甚至是必要的。例如，在流行的桌面游戏《抵抗军》中，玩家必须向其他人撒谎，谎称自己是间谍并背叛了组织。同样，在《星战前夜》等游戏中，虽然从其他玩家那里偷东西不是必须的，但作为游戏的一部分，这是完全允许的，并且在敌对玩家派系之间创造了一些令人震惊的阴谋。
Rules help create the playful space wherein players act differently. It is generally not socially acceptable to lie, steal, or kill, but in a game, such behaviors may be entirely acceptable and even necessary. For example, in the popular tabletop game The Resistance, players have to lie flat-out to others about being a spy and betraying the cause. Similarly, in games like EVE Online, while stealing from other players isn’t required, it is entirely allowed as part of the play of the game and has created some stunning schemes between rival player factions.
游戏中“采取不同行动”的另一个方面是接受玩家并不总是以最有效的方式行动；例如，在国际象棋中，一个玩家不会简单地伸手抓住另一个玩家的国王并宣布自己获胜，因为这是“违反规则的”。同样，在纸牌游戏中，玩家不会例行地翻找牌堆来找到他们想要的牌，即使这比仅仅使用随机发给他们的牌更有效率。游戏体验源于我们自愿参与单独的空间，在这个空间中，一些原本不可接受的行为是可能的，但并非所有可能的行为都是可接受的。
Another part of “acting differently” in play is the acceptance that players do not always act in the most efficient way possible; for example, in Chess one player does not simply reach out and grab the other’s king and declare themselves the winner, as that’s “against the rules.” Similarly, in card games players do not routinely rifle through the deck to find the cards they want, even though that would be more efficient than just using the ones they were randomly dealt. The experience of play arises from our voluntary participation in the separate space in which some otherwise unacceptable actions are possible and not all possible actions are acceptable.
明确游戏世界的运作方式
通常被笼统地称为游戏规则的东西，是游戏如何进行的规范；它们是游戏世界运作的条件。如果玩家和代币是名词，那么规则就是动词：玩家和游戏棋子在游戏中如何表现并相互影响。代币和规则、名词和动词之间的这种关系，是理解游戏系统如何由其各部分构建的基本部分。
What are often loosely called the rules of a game are the specifications for how the game is to be played; they are the conditions by which the game universe operates. If the players and tokens are the nouns, rules are the verbs: how the player and the game pieces are able to behave and affect each other as part of play. This relationship between the tokens and rules, the nouns and verbs, is a fundamental part of understanding how the system of a game is built out of its parts.
规则定义了游戏中任何特定时刻允许的状态、这些状态如何随时间变化以及玩家在游戏中的进展情况。它们描述了游戏的不同部分如何相互关联和影响。它们还详细说明了玩家在游戏中必须克服的障碍、如何解决冲突以及玩家可能达到的潜在结局（特别是游戏定义为“赢”或“输”的结局）。
Rules define the allowable states at any given moment in the game, how those states may change over time, and how the players progress through the game. They describe how different parts of the game relate to and affect each other. They also detail the obstacles players must surmount in the game, how conflicts are resolved, and potential endings players may reach (particularly those defined by the game as “winning” or “losing”).
游戏世界的物理结构由规则指定：这包括玩家如何在游戏中移动，甚至游戏世界本身的形状。游戏世界可能是棋盘一样的网格，也可能是球体，或者完全是其他东西。规则甚至可以指定现实中不可能存在的世界的拓扑结构，例如游戏中的纪念碑谷和Antichamber中令人费解的埃舍尔式世界。
The physical structure of the world is specified by rules: this includes how the player moves through the world and even the shape of the world itself. The game world may be a grid, like a chessboard, or it may be a sphere, or something else entirely. The rules may even specify the topology of a world that would be impossible in reality, such as the mind-bending Escher-like worlds in the games Monument Valley and Antichamber.
规则不仅包括涉及游戏内物理世界的规定，还包括游戏棋子的结构和行为。这包括玩家手中可以保留多少张牌或每个玩家在游戏开始时拥有多少工人的规定。规则还可以解决普遍情况，例如“玩家可以坠落无限远，但落地时仍然不会受到伤害。”甚至“重力每 30 秒就会改变方向。”
Rules include stipulations involving not just the physical in-game world but the structure and behavior of the game pieces. This includes conventions for how many cards a player may keep in their hand or how many workers each player possesses at the beginning of the game. Rules may also address universal circumstances, such as “a player may fall an infinite distance and still take no damage on landing.” Or even “gravity will change direction every 30 seconds.”
保护球员的自主权
规则使得不同的玩家路径（目标、策略和游戏风格）得以出现。规则不得过度限制玩家决定自己路线的能力，即玩家代理权。如果玩家的行动受到过度限制，他们的游戏决策空间就会缩小到少数选择，甚至只有一条路径。当这种情况发生时，玩家就从参与者沦为观察者，从而失去了游戏成为游戏的基本特质之一。
Rules enable different player paths—goals, strategies, and styles of play—to emerge. The rules must not overly restrict the player’s ability to decide their own course, known as player agency. If the player’s actions are overly constrained, their decision-space of the game collapses to a small number of choices or even a single path. When this happens, the player is reduced from participant to observer, thereby removing one of the essential qualities that makes a game a game.
在创建游戏规则作为游戏结构的一部分时，游戏设计师面临的挑战之一是制定尽可能少的规则来创建一个定义明确的游戏空间；游戏世界及其中的一切都必须由游戏规则指定。如果规则不足，游戏就会变得模糊不清，玩家无法构建或驾驭游戏的心理模型。如果规则太多，玩家的能动性就会受到过度限制，他们对游戏的参与度就会消失。
Part of the game designer’s challenge in creating rules as part of the structure of a game is to make as few rules as possible to create a well-defined game-space; the game world and everything in it must be specified by the game rules. If there are not enough rules, the game is ambiguous, and a player is unable to construct or navigate a mental model of it. If there are too many rules, the player’s agency is overly constrained, and their engagement with the game evaporates.
避免规则例外
随意或有例外情况的规则会迅速削弱玩家记住游戏准确模型的能力，使游戏更难学习和享受。这与第 2 章讨论的游戏优雅概念背道而驰。
Rules that are arbitrary or create situational exceptions quickly tax the player’s ability to keep an accurate model of the game in mind and make the game more difficult to learn and enjoy. This is the opposite of the concept of elegance in games discussed in Chapter 2.
例如，许多棋盘游戏使用六面骰子来确定战斗结果。假设掷出所有六点通常是一个“好结果”，但在少数情况下，这实际上是一个坏结果；这就造成了一种情况，即相同的令牌和规则组合（骰子及其掷骰方式）具有不同的定义。这增加了玩家必须学习和记忆的内容，而不会增加他们的参与度或他们可以采取的可能行动。当控制器或按键绑定执行各种操作时，数字游戏中也会发生同样的情况：例如，用鼠标左键单击一次以跳跃，但单击两次以执行完全不同的事情，例如放下您携带的所有东西。由于这两个与鼠标相关的操作在认知和物理上相似，因此它们在游戏中的结果也应该相似。当在游戏中使用任意规则或有很多例外的规则时，它会变得更加难以学习，并且玩家的参与度会受到影响。（您将在第 4 章中看到有关玩家参与度和心理负担的更多信息。）
For example, many board games use six-sided dice to determine the result of combat. Say that rolling all sixes is generally a “good result” except in a few cases, it’s actually a bad result; this creates a situation where the very same combination of token and rules (dice and how they are rolled) has varying definitions. This increases the amount the player has to learn and remember without increasing their engagement or the possible actions they can take. The same can happen in digital games when controller or key bindings to carry out various actions are assigned arbitrarily: left-click once with a mouse to jump, for example, but clicking twice to do something completely different, like drop everything you’re carrying. Because the two mouse-related actions are cognitively and physically similar, their results in the game should also be similar. When arbitrary rules or rules with lots of exceptions are used in a game, it becomes more difficult to learn, and the player’s engagement suffers. (You will see more about player engagement and mental load in this in Chapter 4.)
结构元素和游戏机制
游戏设计师和设计框架以多种不同方式使用了“游戏机制”这一术语（Sicart 2008）。基于系统设计，游戏机制可以被认为是语义上可行的（即有意义的）标记和规则的组合。它们可以被认为是标记和规则的组合，就像可以通过组合名词和动词来构造有意义的短语或短句一样。机制通常很简单，例如“当您通过 Go 时，领取 200 美元”。那些更复杂的机制通常是多个更简单的机制的组合，就像一个复杂的句子是几个短语的组合一样。
The term game mechanics has been used in many different ways by game designers and in design frameworks (Sicart 2008). Grounding this term within systemic design, game mechanics can be thought of as semantically viable (that is, meaningful) combinations of tokens and rules. They can be thought of as the combinations of tokens and rules, much as meaningful phrases or short sentences can be constructed by combining nouns and verbs. Mechanics are typically simple, such as “when you pass Go, collect $200.” Those that are more complex are typically combinations of multiple simpler mechanics, just as a complex sentence is a combination of several phrases.
这里的重点不是为游戏机制创建一个精确的定义，而是用系统术语来阐述这些短语。标记和规则可以以多种方式组合，因此机制可以有多种形式。
The point here is not to create a precise definition for game mechanics but to ground such phrases in systemic terms. Tokens and rules can combine in many ways, and so mechanics may take many forms.
游戏和元游戏
魔法圈的独立空间由游戏的结构元素（即令牌和规则）定义。除了少数例外，令牌没有任何意义，规则在游戏之外不起作用。例如，在玩大富翁游戏时，你拥有多少房产不会影响你在下一场游戏中拥有多少房产。偶尔也会有玩家相互同意的例外情况，例如“上次我先走，所以这次你先走”，这在游戏之间架起了规则的桥梁。其他例外情况开始被称为“遗留”游戏，即一场游戏的动作或事件会影响下次游戏的条件或规则。这些都说明了游戏的结构部分有多么重要，以及如何创造性地取代它们以创造新的、更愉快的游戏体验。
The separate space of the magic circle is defined by the game’s structural elements—its tokens and rules. With a few exceptions, tokens have no meaning, and rules do not operate outside the play of the game. For example, how many properties you own in one play of Monopoly does not affect how many you have in the next game. There are occasional exceptions that players may mutually agree to, such as “I went first last time, so you go first this time” that bridge the operation of rules between games. Other exceptions to this have begun to be known as “legacy” games, where the actions or events of one game affect the conditions or rules the next time it’s played. These illustrate both how important the structural parts of a game are and how they can be creatively superseded to create new and more enjoyable play experiences.
这种在游戏中应用代币或规则的行为被称为元游戏。在超越单个游戏规则的过程中，玩家跨越魔法圈的障碍，将游戏的各个方面带入现实世界，反之亦然。一些元游戏规则被认为是“内部规则”，例如，在《大富翁》游戏中，当你停在免费停车场时，你将赢钱。其他规则可能是针对缺乏经验的玩家的特殊福利。在某些情况下，元游戏更多地是指玩家的游戏本身并不禁止玩家之间以牙还牙的行为，而是以行动而不是以游戏本身。例如，游戏并没有明确禁止玩家之间以牙还牙的行为（“你上一场没有帮助我，所以我现在不会帮助你”），但其他玩家可能会认为这是不良行为，而其他玩家自己的元游戏反应可能是不再与有这种行为的人一起玩。
This application of tokens or rules across games is called metagaming. In transcending the rules of a single game, the players traverse the barrier of the magic circle, bringing aspects of the game into the real world and vice versa. Some metagame rules are considered “house rules,” such as winning money when you land on Free Parking in Monopoly. Others might be special benefits for inexperienced players. In some cases, metagaming refers more to a player’s actions than to the game itself. For example, tit-for-tat actions referring to an out-of-game situation between players (“you didn’t help me in our last game, so I won’t help you now”) are not specifically forbidden by the game but may be considered poor behavior by other players whose own metagame response may be to not play again with a person who behaves this way.
顺便说一句，“针锋相对”的元游戏导致了博弈论中所谓的重复博弈。（奇怪的是，博弈论本身与游戏设计关系不大；它与经济学更密切相关，但有共同之处。）重复博弈包括元游戏实际上是游戏一部分的博弈；例如，如果你知道你将多次玩石头剪刀布，这些知识可以帮助你，因为玩家在这种游戏中的行为并不像看起来那么随机。有预测数学模型可以基于经济回报来预测如何玩重复博弈——在特定策略下，你获胜的可能性有多大。在这种情况下，元游戏被纳入游戏；魔法圈在基础游戏的迭代中得以维持。
Incidentally, “tit-for-tat” metagaming leads into what is known as repeated games in game theory. (Strangely, game theory as such has little to do with game design; it’s more closely related to economics, but there are points of commonality.) Repeated games include those where the metagame is effectively part of the game; for example, if you know you’re going to play Rock-Paper-Scissors multiple times, this knowledge can help you, as players’ behavior in such games is not as random as it might seem. There are predictive mathematical models for how to play repeated games based on the economic payout—how often you are likely to win, given a particular strategy. In cases like this, the metagame becomes subsumed into the game; the magic circle is maintained across iterations of the underlying game.
游戏的功能方面
Functional Aspects of a Game
除了研究游戏中常见的结构元素之外，了解这些部分如何组合在一起以创建游戏的功能组织也很重要。由于标记和规则是游戏系统的部分和行为（名词和动词），因此功能元素是从这些部分产生的循环组合。与结构是由名词和动词组成的短语类似，功能元素是可以从中构建的有意义的概念。这就是游戏如何变得生动并成为玩家可以互动的操作系统的方式。
In addition to examining the structural elements common to games, it’s important to understand how those parts come together to create the game’s functional organization. As tokens and rules are the parts and behaviors—the nouns and verbs—of the game system, the functional elements are the looped assemblies that arise out of those parts. By analogy to the structures being phrases made of nouns and verbs, the functional elements are the meaningful concepts that can be constructed out of them. This is how the game comes to life and becomes an operational system with which the player can interact.
游戏的功能性方面包括玩家围绕其形成目标的任何结构或心理模型的任何动态部分。例如，经济从游戏中以代币形式表示的资源的涨落中产生，这些资源通过规则进行交互。同样，玩家在角色扮演游戏中塑造英雄人物或在战略游戏中建立庞大帝国时，也会使用游戏各部分的功能性集合。没有办法详尽列出所有可能的功能组件，但简而言之，游戏中任何能够完成或支持“在这个游戏中，玩家是……”这一陈述的东西（海盗、飞行员、花匠、皇帝等）或成为玩家完成目标的重要组成部分的东西显然都是游戏的功能性方面之一。
Functional aspects of a game include any construct around which a player forms goals or any dynamic portions of a mental model. For example, economies rise out of the ebb and flow of resources represented as tokens in the game that interact via rules. Similarly, players work with functional aggregations of the game’s parts when they build heroic characters in role-playing games or vast empires in strategic ones. There is no way to make an exhaustive list of all possible functional components, but, briefly, anything within a game that completes or supports the statement “in this game, the player is a…” (pirate, pilot, florist, emperor, and so on) or that is a significant part of a player completing a goal is clearly one of the functional aspects of the game.
这些概念通常也是游戏设计师花费大量时间思考的。虽然游戏中的所有概念都需要简化为标记和规则，但游戏设计师花费大量时间来创建游戏本身，通过将这些部分组织成功能性、可操作的子系统来支持所需的体验。
These are also typically the types of concepts game designers spend a lot of their time thinking about. While all concepts in a game need to be reduced to tokens and rules, game designers spend a lot of time creating the game itself by organizing those parts into functional, operational subsystems that work to support the desired experience.
创造游戏的可能性
重要的是要理解，从本质上讲，特定的经济体、人物、帝国和其他类似的功能结构并不是静态的；它们会随着时间而变化，游戏的一部分。它们也不是直接编码到游戏结构中——但它们的可能性是。也就是说，结构标记和规则为经济、角色或帝国设定了条件和可能性，但并未确定这些在特定游戏中如何出现的确切特征。
It is important to understand that by their nature, the particular economies, characters, empires, and other similar functional constructs created are not static; they change over time as part of play. Nor are they coded directly into the structure of the game—but their possibilities are. That is, the structural tokens and rules set up the conditions and possibilities for an economy, a character, or an empire without determining the exact characteristics of how these appear in a given game.
因此，游戏必须设计为这些不断变化的功能结构提供一个空间。它必须定义一个由内部结构构建的世界模型，为这些结构在整个游戏过程中的成长和变化提供支架。如第 4 章所述，该模型必须与玩家心理模型中对游戏世界的理解相对应并支持这种理解；它必须提供对抗、有意义的决定和玩家目标，以作为游戏的一部分来发展。实现这些，从而构建一个有效的心理模型，是创造参与度和游戏体验的重要组成部分。
As a result, the game must be designed to provide a space for these changing functional structures to emerge. It must define a model of the world built from its internal structures that provides scaffolding for these to grow and change throughout play. As discussed in Chapter 4, this model must correspond with and support the player’s understanding of the game world in their mental model; it must provide for opposition, meaningful decisions, and player goals to develop as part of play. Enabling these and, as a result, the construction of an effective mental model is a significant part of creating engagement and the playful experience.
功能元素作为机器
虽然游戏的功能组件是游戏系统的一部分，但人们通常将这些复杂的循环部分组合称为“游戏系统”。如果结构元素是“静态的”，那么它们凭借其循环交互，在一般意义上（随时间变化）被视为“动态的”，并且在很大程度上，在 MDA 框架中使用的意义上也是如此。
While the functional components of a game are part of the game as a system, people often refer to these complex looped combinations of parts as “the game systems.” If the structural elements are “static,” then these, by virtue of their looping interactions, are seen as “dynamic” in the general sense (of changing over time) and, to a large degree, in the sense used in the MDA framework.
同样，游戏设计师杰夫·埃伦诺 (Geoff Ellenor) 将他对游戏这一部分的概念描述为“一台能做 X 的机器”(Ellenor 2014)，例如，“我想要一台能在我的游戏中制造天气的机器”或“我希望玩家在完成任务时收到任务提供者的电子邮件。”在埃伦诺的想法中，这些“机器”是嵌套的——简单的机器位于更复杂的机器中——而不是被构建成巨大的单片机器。这是对游戏功能方面的极好描述，复杂、持久的系统“机器”由简单的机器按层次构建而成，一直到结构标记和规则。
In a similar way, game designer Geoff Ellenor described his concept for this part of a game as “a machine that does X” (Ellenor 2014), meaning, for example, “I want a machine that makes weather in my game” or “I want the player to receive an email from the mission-giver whenever a mission is completed.” In Ellenor’s thinking, these “machines” are nested—simpler ones inside more complex ones—rather than being built as big monolithic machines. This is an excellent description for the functional aspects of a game, with complex, long-lasting systemic “machines” built hierarchically out of simpler ones, all the way down to structural tokens and rules.
游戏的功能性或动态部分（即 Ellenor 所说的“机器”）由游戏的现实内部模型及其为玩家创造的行动空间组成。游戏的“空间”为玩家提供了有意义的决策，以规划空间中的路线，从而为玩家目标的出现和玩家对游戏的心理模型提供了空间。这一切都基于二阶设计的理念以及游戏表现中的不确定性。本文将详细探讨这些内容。
The functional or dynamic parts of a game—the “machine” in Ellenor’s terms—consist of the game’s internal model of reality and the space it creates for the player to act within. This “space” for gameplay provides for meaningful decisions made by the player to chart a course through the space and, thus, for the emergence of player goals and a player’s mental model of the game. This is all based on the idea of second-order design and on the inclusion of uncertainty in the game’s representation. Each of these is explored in detail here.
游戏的现实内部模型
每个游戏都有自己的内部现实模型。这源于游戏设计师创造的游戏令牌和规则的互动，并由玩家探索和体验。科斯特（2004）说，游戏“是抽象的和标志性的”，“排除了混乱现实中分散注意力的额外细节”（第 36 页）。也就是说，游戏并不等同于现实，而是像所有其他设计系统一样，它们本身就是更复杂事物的模型。
Every game has its own internal model of reality. This arises from the interactions of the game’s tokens and rules, as created by the game designer, and is explored and experienced by the player. Koster (2004) said that games “are abstracted and iconic” and “exclude distracting extra details [of] messy reality” (p. 36). That is, games are not isomorphic with reality but, like all other designed systems, are themselves models of something more complex.
从许多方面来看，每个游戏都是一个拥有自身支配法则的袖珍宇宙。这个小宇宙可能是抽象的，比如由国际象棋或围棋的令牌和规则所定义的宇宙，也可能是高度详细和高度逼真的，比如策略游戏或角色扮演游戏，它们创造了对现实世界的模拟。无论哪种情况，结构和功能元素还会创造科斯蒂基安 (1994) 所说的游戏的内生意义。这是玩家赋予游戏内令牌和规则的意义。令牌和规则之所以有意义，仅仅是因为它们在游戏中具有某种功能。科斯蒂基安以大富翁游戏中的钱币为例：1,000 美元这种货币在游戏之外毫无意义，但在游戏内部却意义重大，可能决定胜负。
In many ways, each game is its own pocket universe with its own governing laws. This little universe may be abstract, such as that defined by the tokens and rules of Chess or Go, or highly detailed and with a high degree of verisimilitude, as in strategy or role-playing games that create a simulacrum of the real world. In either case, the structural and functional elements also create what Costikyan (1994) called the game’s endogenous meaning. This is the meaning that players attach to tokens and rules within the game. The tokens and rules are meaningful solely because they have some function in the game. Costikyan uses the example of Monopoly money: $1,000 in this currency is meaningless outside of the game but has significant meaning inside it, potentially making the difference between winning and losing.
值得注意的是，无论游戏的现实模型多么“逼真”，它都不会像实际现实那样复杂或难以捉摸。即使有可能制作出具有这种程度的细节和复杂性的游戏，这样做也会违背游戏作为娱乐体验中心的本质。让玩家享受游戏的一部分是他们能够为游戏呈现的简化现实版本建立有效的心理模型。如果游戏的现实模型过于复杂、多变或不可预测，以至于玩家无法建立有效的心理模型，那么它可能是一个有趣的模拟，但玩起来并不好玩。有时游戏设计师会误以为创造一个“超现实世界”或一个超复杂系统就是创造一款引人入胜的游戏。这两者并不相同，投入更多的现实主义或复杂性并不一定会让游戏变得更好。
It is important to note that no matter how “realistic” a game’s model of reality, it will never be as complex or inscrutable as actual reality. Even if it were possible to create a game with this degree of detail and complexity, doing so would work against the nature of the game as a locus of a playful experience. Part of having the player enjoy the game is their ability to build an effective mental model of the simplified version of reality it presents. If the game’s model of reality is so complex, variable, or unpredictable that the player cannot build an effective mental model, it might be an interesting simulation to build, but it will not be a fun game to play. Sometimes game designers mistake creating a “hyper-realistic world” or a super-complex system for creating a compelling game. The two aren’t the same, and pouring on more realism or complexity does not inherently make for a better game.
创造游戏世界作为玩耍的空间
在讨论游戏的内在现实模型时，Salen 和 Zimmerman (2003) 指出游戏设计是二阶设计。这有几个不同但相关的含义。首先，游戏的设计（以它的标记和规则表达）创建了状态空间的规范，而不是单一路径。也就是说，游戏的内部现实必须是玩家可以沿着多条路径探索和遍历的（游戏规则允许），而不仅仅是设计师心中的一条路径。如果设计只允许一条路径，那么实际上游戏就变成了像一本书或一部电影一样的单一叙事。在这种情况下，玩家被置于被动角色，无法做出任何决定或进行任何有意义的互动，游戏体验也就消失了。 （第 4 章对交互进行了详细定义，但目前该词的常见模糊含义已经足够了。）定义标记和规则以允许玩家在游戏中采取多种不同的路径，使玩家在玩游戏和重玩游戏时能够拥有不同的体验，并且拥有与其他玩家不同的体验。每次玩家根据他们在游戏中的行为选择一条路径时，他们都知道他们可以选择多条路径，即使并非所有路径都同样可取。
In talking about the internal model of reality of games, Salen and Zimmerman (2003) pointed out that game design is second-order design. This has a couple of different but related meanings. First, the game’s design as expressed in its tokens and rules creates the specification for a state-space, not a single path. That is, the internal reality of the game must be one the player can explore and traverse (as allowed by the game’s rules) along multiple paths, not just a single one that the designer has in mind. If there is only one path allowed by the design, then in effect the game has become a single narrative like a book or a movie. In such a case, the player is put into a passive role with no decisions or meaningful interactivity, and the experience of play evaporates. (There is a detailed definition of interactive in Chapter 4, but for now the common fuzzy sense of that word is good enough.) Defining the tokens and rules to allow the player to take multiple different paths through the game enables a player to have different experiences when playing and replaying the game and also to have experiences that vary from those of other players. Each time a player takes a single path, based on their actions in the game, they know that there are many paths they could have taken, even if not all are equally preferable.
这与电影或书籍形成鲜明对比，在电影或书籍中，观众或读者必须采取的路径已经确定。作为观众或读者，你无法影响故事事件的进程；你是一个观众，而不是参与者，你无法选择故事如何展开。这凸显了传统故事和游戏之间众所周知的（且仍未解决的）矛盾：故事遵循单一的脚本路径，不会随时间而改变重复遭遇，2而游戏则提供了一个具有多种可能路径的空间，可以提供不同的体验。游戏设计师的工作不是创建一条单一的路径——一种对所有玩家都相同的体验的一阶设计——因为这很快就会变得无聊，而不是作为一种参与式体验。相反，游戏设计师必须使用游戏的标记和规则来创建一个多维空间，玩家可以通过这个空间为自己定义他们自己的特定体验。
Contrast this with a movie or book in which the path the viewer or reader must take has already been determined. You as the viewer or reader cannot affect the course of the events of the story; you are a viewer, not a participant, and have no choices you can make in how the story unfolds. This highlights the well-known (and still unresolved) tension between traditional stories and games: stories follow a single scripted path that does not change on repeat encounters,2 whereas games provide a space with many possible paths that can provide different experiences. The game designer’s job is not to create a single path—a first-order design for the experience that will be the same for all players—as that will quickly become boring rather than engaging as a participatory experience. Instead, the game designer must use the tokens and rules of the game to create a many-dimensioned space through which the players define for themselves their particular experiences.
二阶设计的第二个相关含义是，设计令牌和规则以形成动态系统（以及体验空间）是实现游戏独有的涌现的一个例子。正如在 MDA 框架的讨论中提到的，游戏的机制（令牌和规则）是直接设计的；但其动态（功能方面）是在游戏过程中从令牌和规则中产生的。游戏系统不提供单一的预定义路径，而是创建整个可探索的游戏空间，如上所述。
The second but related meaning of second-order design is that designing the tokens and rules to form dynamic systems (and the space for an experience) is an example of enabling emergence in ways that are unique to games. As mentioned in the discussion of the MDA framework, the game’s mechanics—its tokens and rules—are directly designed; but its dynamics—its functional aspects—arise out of the tokens and rules during the play of the game. The game’s systems do not provide a single, predefined path but instead create an entire explorable play-space, as described above.
玩家的体验源自他们与设计空间的互动——源自设计空间，但无法映射回设计的任何单个部分或其各部分的简单总和。玩家的体验往往以设计师无法预测的方式展开。如果空间足够大，并且玩家在游戏中拥有足够的自主权，那么这种体验可能是完全独特和突发的。（您将在本书第 8 章和其他章节中看到有关二阶设计和突发的更多信息。）
The player’s experience emerges from their interaction with the designed space—arising from it but not being mappable back to any single part of the design or the simple sum of its parts. Often the player’s experience unfolds in ways the designer could not have predicted. If the space is sufficiently large and the player has enough autonomy in the game, that experience may be wholly unique and emergent. (You will see more about second-order design and emergence in Chapter 8 and elsewhere in this book.)
《矮人要塞》中猫咪系统性死亡的奇怪案例
上述的那种突发性游戏玩法是制作系统性游戏的核心。它可以有无数种形式，但这里有一个特殊的、可能极端的例子，即游戏中的系统性互动创造了一种突发情况。矮人要塞可能是迄今为止最系统化的游戏。游戏描述了一群矮人在玩家的指导下建立地下帝国时所遇到的成长和危险。矮人要塞完全是程序性的，这意味着世界和其中发生的一切被定义为二阶设计，而不是手工制作以描绘特定地点或事件集。（这款游戏几乎只包含 ASCII 图形，通常被认为是最难学的电子游戏之一。这是一个与其系统性无关的问题；玩家努力学习玩这款游戏可能是因为它的系统性让它尽管存在这些障碍，但仍如此引人注目。）
The kind of emergent gameplay just described is at the heart of making systemic games. It can take innumerable forms, but here is one particular, possibly extreme, example of systemic interactions in a game creating an emergent situation. Dwarf Fortress is possibly the most systemic game yet made. The game depicts the growth and hazards encountered by a group of dwarves creating (with the player’s guidance) their underground empire. Dwarf Fortress is entirely procedural, meaning that the world and all that happens in it are defined as a second-order design, not handcrafted to depict a particular place or set of events. (The game also consists of almost nothing but ASCII graphics and is generally regarded as one of the most difficult video games to learn to play. This is an issue separate from its systematicity; it may well be that players strive to learn to play the game because its systemic nature makes it so compelling despite these obstacles.)
2015 年末，一名玩家开始注意到游戏中猫咪大量死亡（Master 2015）。猫咪并不是游戏的主要元素，但却是游戏呈现给玩家的繁茂世界的一部分。猫咪的死亡与任何战斗或类似情况无关。经过调查，玩家发现猫在死前经常会感到头晕（游戏中生物可能患有的一种“综合症”），而且令人不安的“它们死后总会留下一滩呕吐物”——这也是另一种系统性游戏影响。起初，玩家认为游戏中有一个漏洞，如果猫在酒馆里（它们经常在酒馆里），酒馆老板会给猫提供酒。事实上，原因更奇怪：猫经常去酒馆捉老鼠——这是猫行为的一部分，不管它可能对游戏产生什么重大影响。在酒馆喝酒的矮人经常会把酒泼到地板上，有些酒会溅到猫身上。由于猫有“自我清洁”的行为，它们会喝掉溅到身上的酒精，然后不久就会变得醉酒、头晕，并且由于体重非常轻，经常会死亡。
In late 2015, one player began noticing an epidemic of cats dying in the game (Master 2015). Cats aren’t a major aspect of the game but are part of the lush world it presents to the player. The cat deaths were unrelated to any combat or similar circumstances. After investigating, the player discovered that the cats were often dizzy (a “syndrome” that can be attached to a creature in the game) just before they died, and disturbingly “their death always leave [sic] a pool of vomit with them”—another systemic in-game effect. At first, the player thought there was a bug in the game where tavern keepers would serve cats alcohol if the animals were located in a tavern (as they often were). In actuality, the cause was even stranger: the cats frequented taverns to hunt mice and rats—this is what was programmed in as part of the cats’ behavior, without regard to any significant in-game effects it might have. The dwarves drinking in the tavern would often splash their wine on the floor, some of which would get on the cats. Since cats have a “self-cleaning” behavior, they would in effect drink the alcohol that had splashed onto them, and then shortly thereafter become drunk, dizzy, and, due to their very low body weight, often die.
整个情况是多个系统相互作用的结果。从事这项工作的设计师从来没有说过：“确保猫会被酒溅到并死于酒精中毒。”游戏中有许多系统，包括饮酒系统（对游戏中的矮人来说很重要）、酒溅到物体上的系统（非常详细：游戏日志显示了酒馆里的猫的记录，上面写着“矮人的酒溅到左后脚趾的第四根脚趾上”）、确保饮酒者的体型会增加或减少酒精的影响、动物有清洁自己的能力（游戏中只有猫和小熊猫有这种能力）并因此摄入酒精等。
This entire situation is the result of multiple interacting systems. No designer working on this ever said, “Make sure cats can be splashed by wine and die from alcohol poisoning.” There are many systems in the game, including those for drinking alcohol (important to the dwarves in the game), for wine being spattered on things (in great detail: the game logs show entries for a cat in a tavern with “dwarven wine spatter fourth left rear toe,” for example), for ensuring that the size of the drinker increases or decreases the alcohol’s effect, and for animals to have the ability to clean themselves (only cats and red pandas have this ability in the game) and thus ingest alcohol, among others.
所有这些系统都作为更高级别系统中的功能部分相互作用，从而创建了一个大型游戏空间，其中包括可怜的猫死于酒精中毒的影响。这不是预先计划好的，而是作为好奇玩家的游戏玩法元素出现的。这只是一个极端的例子，即新兴系统游戏玩法，因此也是游戏世界的二阶设计。
All of these systems interact together as functional parts in a higher-level system to create a large play-space that includes the effect of the poor cats dying of alcohol poisoning. This wasn’t preplanned but emerged as an element of gameplay for a curious player. This is just one, albeit extreme, example of emergent systemic gameplay and, thus, of the second-order design of the game world.
游戏世界中的不确定性和随机性
游戏世界的一个常见功能元素是不确定性，通常是通过某种形式的随机性实现的。这种不确定性有多种形式，从我们熟悉的掷骰子和从牌堆中发牌，到数字游戏中使用的复杂随机数生成器（更多内容请参见第 9 章“游戏平衡方法”）。并非所有游戏都使用随机性作为功能组成部分，但所有游戏都为玩家带来了一定程度的不确定性。一些古老的游戏，如国际象棋和围棋，在规则中没有内置随机动作；这些游戏中的不确定性来自于每个玩家事先都不知道其他玩家的动作。然而，当今大多数游戏的规则中都包含一定程度的随机性。这通常被视为玩家在游戏世界中导航技能的平衡因素。
A common functional element of game worlds is uncertainty, typically achieved through some form of randomness. This takes many forms, from familiar dice rolls and cards dealt from a deck to sophisticated random number generators used in digital games (more on these in Chapter 9, “Game Balance Methods”). Not all games use randomness as a functional component, but all present the player or players with some degree of uncertainty. Some ancient games, such as Chess and Go, have no random action built into their rules; the uncertainty in these games comes from each player not knowing the actions of the other in advance. Most games today, however, have some amount of randomness as part of their rules. This is often seen as a balancing factor to the skill the players may have developed in navigating the game world.
简而言之，游戏世界越确定，就越能提前知道。知道得越多，游戏空间就越会坍缩为单一路径，剥夺玩家决定如何穿越空间的能力。一个典型的例子是，玩家记住的复杂、舞蹈般的、但也是完全确定的开场并被熟练的国际象棋玩家使用。当玩家设法以新颖的方式使用现有的功能性“信息块”（棋盘上的棋子组合 - 实际上，由棋子及其位置之间的相互关系定义的子系统）时，该游戏变得有趣。正如您将在本章后面看到的那样，玩家做出有意义的决策的能力对于创造引人入胜的游戏玩法至关重要。
In short, the more deterministic the game world is, the more it can be known in advance. The more it is known, the more the game-space collapses to a single path, robbing the player of the ability to make any decisions about how to traverse the space. A prime example of this can be seen in the elaborate, dance-like, but also entirely deterministic openings memorized and used by skilled Chess players. That game becomes interesting as players manage to use existing functional “chunks” of information (combinations of pieces on the board—in effect, subsystems defined by the mutual relationships between pieces and their locations) in novel ways. As you will see later in this chapter, the ability for players to make meaningful decisions is crucial to creating engaging gameplay.
玩家的心智模型
游戏定义了一个游戏空间，一个供玩家探索的世界。与此相对应，玩家在玩游戏时会创建自己对世界的内部心理模型。虽然玩家的心理模型本身并不是游戏的一部分，但游戏的功能方面必须结合起来，以支持玩家在游戏内创建它。正如您将在第 4 章中看到的那样，这种心理模型的形成是玩家参与游戏并最终获得乐趣体验的重要组成部分。现在可以说，玩家通过与代币和规则以及通过它们与游戏呈现的功能元素进行交互来构建他们对游戏世界的模型。
The game defines a play-space, a world for players to explore. Corresponding to this, the player creates their own internal mental model of the world as they play. While the player’s mental model is not part of the game per se, the functional aspects of the game must come together to support its creation within the player. As you will see in Chapter 4, the formation of this mental model is a vital part of the player being engaged by the game and ultimately of their experience of having fun. For now it’s enough say that the player builds their model of the game world by interacting with the tokens and rules and, via them, the functional elements presented by the game.
这种模型越容易在玩家的头脑中建立，玩家对游戏设计师定义的世界模型的理解越一致，游戏就越吸引人。相反，如果玩家很难辨别游戏模型背后的规则，或者这些规则看起来不完整或不一致，游戏通常就不会吸引人，或者至少需要玩家投入更多的时间和认知资源（这样做会将游戏的受众限制为那些愿意花时间和投入必要资源来学习游戏的人）。
The more easily this model is to build within the player’s mind, and the more consistent the player’s understanding is of the world-model defined by the game designer, the more engaging the game will be. Conversely, if the player has a difficult time discerning the rules underlying the model of the game, or if those rules appear incomplete or inconsistent, the game will often fail to be engaging, or will at least demand more time and cognitive resources from the player (and in so doing will limit the game’s audience to only those willing to take the time and devote the resources needed to learn it).
说玩家的心理模型必须易于构建，并不意味着游戏或心理模型必须简单。像井字棋这样的游戏所需的心理模型很简单，因为游戏几乎没有令牌和规则——但这也是玩家很快就会厌倦的游戏，因为他们可以很容易地看到游戏的结果：游戏中没有随机性，没有系统深度，玩家几乎没有机会为彼此创造重大不确定性。像围棋这样的复杂游戏或像群星这样的现代战略游戏的心理模型可能需要花费大量的时间和精力来构建。然而，这类游戏的系统质量意味着在构建过程中几乎没有不一致之处需要纳入。因此，随着玩家心理模型的完整性不断提高，玩家的能力也会不断提高，这鼓励他们进一步探索游戏模型——这是一个非常有效的强化循环。
Saying that a player’s mental model must be easily constructed does not mean that the game or the mental model must be simple. The mental model required for a game like Tic-Tac-Toe is simple because the game has few tokens and rules—but it is also a game that players tire of quickly, as they can easily see the game’s outcomes: there is no randomness in the game, no systemic depth, and few opportunities for players to create significant uncertainty for each other. The mental model for a complex game like Go or a modern strategy game like Stellaris can take a great deal of time and effort to build. However, the systemic quality of such games means that there are few inconsistencies to incorporate along the way. As a result, players are rewarded with increased capability as their mental model grows in completeness, which encourages further exploration of the game’s model—a highly effective reinforcing loop.
有意义的决定
当玩家构建游戏世界的心理模型时（基于他们对游戏世界的标记和规则的了解），他们会与游戏世界互动，锻炼自己的理解，尝试各种行动方案。要做到这一点，玩家必须能够做出有意义的决定。如上所述，要做出有意义的决定，玩家的心理模型和游戏世界模型中通常存在不确定性；没有不确定性，玩家就无法做出决定。有些游戏完全在玩家之间创造了不确定性，没有隐藏或游戏表现中的随机元素。然而，大多数都包含一些玩家尚不知道或尚无法知道的隐藏信息，因为这些信息是随机确定的，并且无法提前知道。3
As the player constructs a mental model of the game world (building on what they learn of its tokens and rules), they interact with it and exercise their understanding, trying out various courses of action. To do this, the player must be able to make meaningful decisions. As stated above, being able to make meaningful decisions requires uncertainty in the player’s mental model and typically in the game’s world model as well; without that, there is no decision for the player to make. Some games create the uncertainty wholly between players, with no hidden or random elements in the game’s representation. Most, however, include some hidden information the player does not yet know or that cannot yet be known because it is to be determined randomly and is not knowable in advance.3
没有选择、无效的选择和导致改变的选择
如果游戏不向玩家提供任何决策，玩家就会被迫扮演被动角色，而不是互动角色。他们无法探索，只能沿着一条路径前进，因此游戏体验就会崩溃。（这仍然会令人愉快，就像看电影或读书一样，但在这些情况下，所有决策都已做出，游戏体验也就不存在了。）同样，如果游戏提供了虚幻的选择——对玩家或世界没有影响的决策，例如在两扇门之间做出选择，而这两扇门看起来会通向同一个地方——这些选择很快就会等同于根本没有选择。由于选择一个或另一个选项不会产生任何影响，因此决策变得任意，因此就像不存在一样。
If a game presents a player with no decisions to make, the player is forced into a passive rather than interactive role. They cannot explore but can only follow a single path, and so the experience of play collapses. (This can still be enjoyable, as when watching a movie or reading a book, but in those cases, all the decisions have been made, and there is no experience of play.) Similarly, if the game provides illusory choices—decisions that have no effect on the player or the world, such as choosing between two doors that are then seen to lead to the same place—these quickly become equivalent to no choice at all. Since there is no effect from choosing one option or another, the decision becomes arbitrary and thus as if it didn’t exist.
相反，游戏必须为玩家提供做出有意义决定的机会：这些选择会以可辨别的方式影响玩家的状态或世界的状态，并创造或阻碍沿着特定路径进一步探索和做出决定的机会。
The game must instead provide the player with opportunities to make meaningful decisions: choices that affect the player’s state or the state of the world in discernable ways and that either create or block the opportunity for further exploration and decisions along a particular path.
最终，什么构成了“有意义的”决策可能因玩家而异。但是，如果玩家认为决策的结果要么会让她更接近期望的结果，要么会让她离期望的结果更远，那么这个决策就有意义。目前，这只是对游戏背景下的意义的粗略描述，但我们将在下面讨论玩家目标和主题元素以及第4 章中讨论不同形式的互动时对此进行补充。
Ultimately, what constitutes a “meaningful” decision may vary with each player. However, if the player believes the outcome of a decision will either bring her closer to a desired end or push her further from it, the decision carries meaning. This is for now a cursory description of meaning within the context of a game but one that will be filled out in the discussion of player goals and thematic elements below and different forms of interactivity in Chapter 4.
对立与冲突
游戏需要对抗，几乎所有游戏都包含某种形式的明显冲突。如果游戏中没有对抗，玩家将能够不费吹灰之力就实现他们想要的结果。在国际象棋中，如果你能够第一步就吃掉对手的王并说“我赢了”，或者在战略游戏中拥有你想要的所有金钱和权力，那么游戏很快就会失去任何参与度或乐趣。因此，为了让玩家能够锻炼他们对游戏的心理模型，做出有意义的决定来实现他们的目标，除了不确定性之外，游戏中还必须有阻碍他们进步的力量。
Games require opposition, and almost all games contain some form of overt conflict. If there were no opposition in a game, a player would be able to achieve their desired outcome without any significant effort. Being able to pick up your opponent’s king in Chess as your first move and say “I win” or being able to have all the money and power you want in a strategy game quickly drains the game of any engagement or fun. Thus, for players to be able to exercise their mental model of the game, to make meaningful decisions to achieve their goals, in addition to uncertainty, there must be forces in the game that obstruct their progress.
游戏中的对手类型可以分为以下几类：
The types of opposition found in games fall into a few categories:
规则：玩家在游戏中面临的大部分对手来自规则本身。例如，在国际象棋中，规则不允许玩家简单地冲过去抢走对方的王。大多数游戏都通过规则限制玩家的行动，使用游戏中的令牌。这些可以表述为对移动、基于资源的行动，或基于游戏世界内的因素（例如，规则认为玩家无法通过的地形）。在游戏过程中，这些规则应该感觉像是游戏世界的自然组成部分，而不是强加给游戏世界以造成限制的东西。规则对玩家来说越随意，他们就越会思考如何玩游戏，而不仅仅是玩游戏，他们的参与度就越低。
The rules: A large part of the opposition that players face in a game comes from the rules themselves. For example, in Chess the rules do not allow for simply swooping in and grabbing the other player’s king. Most games limit the player’s actions by the rules, using the tokens in the game. These may be articulated as limitations on movement, on resource-based actions, or on factors within the world (for example, terrain that the rules deem impassible to the player). Such rules should feel during play like a natural part of the game world rather than something forced into it to create a limitation. The more arbitrary a rule feels to players, the more they will think about how to play the game rather than just playing it, and the less engaged they will be.
主动对手：除了规则和世界之外，许多游戏还提供主动反对玩家行为的代理。笼统地说，这些可以称为“怪物”——任何反对玩家并在其行为中具有一定程度的代理权的东西——尽管这包括一切，从试图阻挡玩家角色道路的匿名妖精到精心策划以确保玩家在游戏中失败的敌人。
Active opponents: In addition to the rules and the world, many games provide agents who actively oppose the player’s actions. Loosely, these can be termed “monsters”—anything that opposes the player and has some degree of agency in its actions—though this includes everything from anonymous goblins attempting to block the player-character’s path to a finely crafted nemesis spinning elaborate plans to ensure the player’s downfall in the game.
其他玩家：玩家可能拥有由游戏功能元素定义的角色，这些功能元素使玩家彼此对立。在任何玩家相互竞争的游戏中，无论是直接竞争（“谁赢”）还是间接竞争（例如，谁得分更高），玩家都可能成为彼此的障碍。许多游戏都是建立在两个或多个玩家试图平衡实现自己期望的结果的同时阻碍其他玩家的理念之上的。
Other players: Players may have roles defined by the game’s functional elements that put them in opposition to each other. In any game where players compete with each other, whether directly (for “who wins”) or indirectly (for example, for who has the higher score), players may act as obstacles in each other’s way. Many games are built on the idea of two or more players trying to balance achieving their own desired outcomes while thwarting others.
玩家本身：平衡不同的期望结果表明玩家可能是自己的对手。如果玩家的资源有限，他们就会形成自己的经济，无法将资源用于他们想要的所有事情。例如，玩家可能必须做出决定，是现在将游戏资源用于组建军队，还是升级兵营以在以后组建更强大的军队。这种权衡很常见，并且基于玩家无法同时做所有事情的事实，为玩家提供了有意义的决定。
The players themselves: Balancing different desired outcomes shows how the player may be their own opposition. If a player has a limited amount of resources, they form their own economy, where they cannot apply resources to all the things they would like. The player may have to make a decision, for example, about whether to spend in-game resources on building troops now or on upgrading barracks to build more powerful troops later. This kind of trade-off is common and presents the player with meaningful decisions based on the fact that they cannot do everything at the same time.
球员目标
玩家所做的决定通常是在游戏目标的背景下做出的。如果玩家在游戏的状态空间中没有目标、没有目的地，那么就没有更好的选择，也就没有意图、意义或参与度。因此，目标是玩家选择游戏路线的指路明灯。没有目标，玩家就会随波逐流，这种情况与参与度和游戏体验背道而驰，就像无法做出任何决定而产生的被动性一样。
Decisions that a player makes are typically made within the context of the player’s goals within the game. If a player has no goal, no destination in the state-space of the game, then no choice is better than any other, and so there is no intent, meaning, or engagement. As such, goals are the guiding stars by which players choose their course through the game. Without goals, the player simply drifts, a condition as contrary to engagement and the playful experience as the passivity arising from not being able to make any decisions at all.
因此，玩家渴望在游戏中实现目标。通常，他们在游戏中的最终目标与可衡量或英勇的结果有关（即“获胜”）。此类目标通常由游戏设计师作为其功能元素的一部分提供，以量化游戏目标。这些被称为明确目标。当有人问“游戏的目标是什么？”或“我如何取胜？”时，他们问的是游戏的明确目标。
Players thus desire goals within the game. Often, their ultimate in-game goals have to do with a measurable or valorous end (that is, “winning”). Such goals are often supplied by the game designer as part of its functional elements as a quantification of the game’s objectives. These are called explicit goals. When someone asks, “What is the object of the game?” or “How do I win?” they are asking about the game’s explicit goals.
大多数游戏都有明确的目标，这些目标要么涵盖整个游戏过程（“获胜条件”），要么至少帮助玩家学习游戏的基本知识并开始建立心理模型。在游戏中，这些目标并不是玩家唯一可能的目标，它们可以被看作就像“训练轮”一样。在玩家对世界有了足够详细的心理模型后，在某些游戏中，他们就可以自由地创建自己的隐性目标，以驱动他们的行动和决策。即使在游戏提供的明确目标（“完成这一关”）的背景下，玩家也可能只是为了自己的娱乐而创建自己的目标（“我要完成这一关，但不杀死任何怪物”）。
Most games have explicit goals that either cover the entire play of the game (“win conditions”) or that at least help the player learn the basics of the game and begin building a mental model. In games where these are not the only possible goals the player can have, they can be seen as “training wheels.” After a player has a sufficiently detailed mental model of the world, in some games they are then set free to create their own implicit goals that drive their actions and decisions. Even within the context of explicit goals provided by the game (“finish this level”), players may create their own goals simply for their own amusement (“I’m going to finish this level without killing any monsters”).
隐性目标和显性目标可以结合起来，例如当游戏提供可选成就或徽章时，这些成就或徽章本身就是目的（例如，在不杀死任何生物的情况下完成关卡的“和平主义者”标签）。这样的成就可能会激励玩家开始创建自己的隐性目标。这样做会增加玩家的参与度和他们继续玩游戏的可能性。
Implicit and explicit goals can be combined, such as when there are game-provided optional achievements or badges that are ends in themselves (such as a “pacifist” tag for completing a level without killing anything). Such achievements may incentivize players to begin creating their own implicit goals. Doing so increases the player’s engagement and the probability that they will continue playing the game.
另一方面，只有明确目标的游戏往往寿命较短，重玩价值较低，因为玩家的潜在目标集受到游戏本身的限制。这与以下观点一致：随着游戏设计减少玩家可能采取的行动，状态空间变窄，玩家的目标集变小，他们做出有意义决定的能力下降，他们的整体参与感要么转瞬即逝（直到他们看透游戏创造的代理幻觉），要么减弱。游戏可能仍然像书籍或电影一样令人愉快，但没有玩家从创建自己的目标和规划自己在游戏世界中的路径中获得的那种代理感和意义。
On the other hand, games that have only explicit goals tend to have lower longevity and replay value because the player’s potential set of goals is circumscribed by the game itself. This is consistent with the idea that as the game’s design reduces the possible actions the player can take, the state-space is narrowed, the player’s set of goals becomes smaller, their ability to make meaningful decisions is decreased, and their overall sense of engagement is either fleeting (until they see through the illusion of agency created by the game) or reduced. The game may still be enjoyable in the same way that a book or movie is, but without the same sense of agency and meaning that players can derive from creating their own goals and charting their own path through the game’s world.
目标类型
第 4 章探讨了不同类型的互动性，但值得在此从不同类型的玩家目标的角度来预示这种探索。这些类型的目标都源自游戏功能元素所创造的内在意义以及玩家所创建的心理模型。如果游戏没有内在意义，或者玩家无法为其创建可行的心理模型，那么玩家就无法形成关于游戏的目标。在这种情况下，他们只能在游戏中漫无目的地游荡（围绕游戏世界和/或其游戏空间），这很快就会变得无聊。
Chapter 4 explores different types of interactivity, but it is worth foreshadowing that exploration here in terms of different types of player goals. These types of goals all arise out of the endogenous meaning created by the functional elements of the game and from the mental model the player creates. If the game has no internal meaning, or if the player cannot create a viable mental model of it, then the player cannot form goals about the game. In that case, they are reduced to wandering aimlessly in the game (around the game world and/or its play-space), which quickly becomes boring.
玩家目标可能在多个维度上变化，包括持续时间和频率：完成一个目标需要多长时间以及玩家尝试完成该目标的频率是多少？玩家目标还对应不同类型的心理动机，如您将在第 4 章中看到的那样。显性和隐性目标可以是以下任何一种：
Player goals may be thought of as varying in several dimensions, including duration and frequency: how long does a goal take to complete and how frequently does the player attempt it? Player goals also correspond to different kinds of psychological motivations, as you will see in Chapter 4. Both explicit and implicit goals may be any of the following:
即时：玩家希望通过有效地做出基于时间的动作立即完成的动作。例如，在恰当的时间跳跃或抓住绳索，或者使用快速反应来阻挡对手的射击。
Instant: Actions the player wants to accomplish immediately by effectively making a time-based action. Examples include jumping or grabbing a rope at just the right time or using fast reactions to block an opponent’s shot.
短期：近期目标，例如解决难题、杀死怪物、使用特定战术、升级等。这些目标本质上是认知性的，需要规划和关注，但不需要长期目标。它们通常包括多个即时目标，这些目标在完成总体目标的过程中得到满足。
Short term: Near-term goals such as solving a puzzle, killing a monster, using a particular tactic, gaining a level, and so on. These goals are cognitive in nature, requiring planning and attention, but without a long time horizon. They typically include multiple instant goals that are satisfied along the way to completing an overall goal.
长期目标：战略性、认知性目标，包括玩家想要在游戏中实现的目标，例如，击败强大的对手、获得全套道具、建立特定的技能树、建立帝国。这些目标需要高度集中注意力和规划，是玩家长期参与游戏的支柱。长期目标包含多个短期目标，而短期目标又包含即时目标。这些目标的系统层次应该很明显，并且通常是玩家满意的一点。（同样，请参阅第 4 章以了解有关目标的更深入讨论。）
Long term: Strategic, cognitive goals that encompass what the player wants to achieve in the game—for example, taking out a strong opponent, gaining a complete set of items, building up a particular skill tree, creating an empire. These goals require a great deal of focus and planning and are the backbone of a player’s long-term engagement with the game. Long-term goals contain multiple short-term ones, which in turn contain instant ones. The systemic hierarchy of these goals should be evident and is often a point of satisfaction to a player. (Again, see Chapter 4 for a more in-depth discussion of goals.)
社交：玩家的目标主要涉及他们与游戏中其他玩家的关系。这些目标也很容易延伸到游戏外的关系，这说明了魔法圈的渗透性。然而，这些目标主要与包容、地位、合作、直接竞争等有关。考虑到建立和调整社会关系需要时间，这些目标通常包含多个短期、短期甚至长期目标。
Social: Goals the player has that primarily involve their relationships with other players within the game. These goals can easily spill over into relationships outside of the game, too, illustrating the porousness of the magic circle. However, these goals are primarily those having to do with inclusion, status, cooperation, direct competition, and so on. Given the time it can take to form and adjust social relationships, these goals often contain multiple immediate, short-term, and even long-term goals.
情感：游戏设计师通常不会明确考虑玩家的情感目标，尽管这应该是游戏设计中首先要考虑的事情之一。实现情感解决方案是许多游戏的关键（《Gone Home》、《Road Not Taken》、《Undertale》等）。虽然玩家自己可能不会有意识地考虑满足情感目标，就像他们实现更具认知性的短期或长期规划目标一样，但这些对于游戏的享受来说更为重要。
Emotional: Game designers often don’t think explicitly about a player’s emotional goals, though it should be one of the first things you consider in game design. Achieving an emotional resolution is key to many games (Gone Home, Road Not Taken, Undertale, and so on). While the players themselves may not consciously consider satisfying an emotional goal the way they do a more cognitive short- or long-term planning goal, these are even more important to enjoyment of the game.
这些动态和可操作的功能组件（即游戏的现实模型，为游戏、对抗和决策创造了空间）中的每一个都使玩家能够构建游戏的心理模型并与之互动，从而创建对他们的参与至关重要的目标。玩家通过这些互动和目标获得的体验将我们带到了游戏系统描述的最高水平。
Each of these dynamic and operational functional components—the game’s model of reality that creates a space for play, opposition, and decisions—enables the player to build a mental model of the game and interact with it, creating goals that are vital to their engagement. The player’s experience via these interactions and goals leads us to the highest level of the systemic description of games.
建筑与主题元素
Architecture and Thematic Elements
在功能方面的系统层面，即整个体验层面，每个游戏都有架构和主题两个方面。这些方面源自结构部分之间的底层功能交互。从系统角度来看，架构和主题是同一整体的两个方面：架构元素更注重内部（开发人员），而主题元素更注重外部（玩家）。游戏设计师必须始终了解架构和主题，以及它们如何相互关联并从游戏更基本的结构和功能方面脱颖而出，以创建有效的游戏玩法。
At a systemic level above its functional aspects, at the level of the whole experience, each game has both architectural and thematic sides. These emerge from the underlying functional interactions between the structural parts. In systemic terms, the architecture and theme are two faces of the same whole: the architectural elements are more inward (developer) focused, and the thematic ones are more outward (player) focused. Game designers must be constantly aware of both architecture and theme and how they link to each other and emerge from the more fundamental structural and functional aspects of the game to create effective gameplay.
游戏的架构方面是高级构造（基于结构和功能组件构建），用于支持面向玩家的游戏主题。架构元素包括以下内容：
Architectural aspects of a game are high-level constructions—built on structural and functional components—that support the player-facing themes of the game. The architectural elements include the following:
游戏内容和系统的平衡
The game’s balance of content and systems
游戏叙事结构的机械、技术组成部分
The mechanical, technical components of the game’s narrative structure
游戏用户界面的组织——通常称为“用户体验”开发，是玩家与游戏互动的技术层面
The organization of the game’s user interface—what is often called “user experience” development and is the more technical side of how the player interacts with the game
所使用的技术平台（无论是棋盘游戏还是数字游戏）
The technological platform used (whether this is a board game or a digital game)
游戏的主题元素是游戏结构和功能中产生的所有元素，用于创造整体玩家体验。如果游戏的主题是寻找爱情、获得强大力量或征服世界，那么必须在游戏设计架构的支持下通过主题元素传达这些内容。主题组件包括以下内容：
The game’s thematic elements are all the elements that arise out of its structure and function to create the overall player experience. If the game’s theme is about finding love, achieving great power, or conquering the world, this must be conveyed by the thematic elements with the support of the game’s design architecture. The thematic components include the following:
游戏内容和系统支持玩家互动和目标的创建方式——特别是自成目的的目标（如下所述）
The way in which the game’s content and systems support the creation of player interactivity and goals—in particular autotelic goals (described below)
游戏叙事的内容（如果有）
The content of the game narrative, if any
游戏用户界面的外观和感觉——通常被称为“趣味性”，即玩家观看和操作游戏界面时获得的简单乐趣，与玩家这样做的原因无关
The appearance and feel of the game’s user interface—what is often called its “juiciness,” for the simple enjoyment derived from viewing and operating it separate from the player’s reasons for doing so
架构和主题元素共同作用，使游戏与玩家互动，并实现玩家在游戏中的目标。这些将作为游戏结构系统模型的最后一部分进行讨论。
Architectural and thematic elements work together to enable the game’s interactions with the player and the player’s goals within the game. These will be discussed here as the final part of the systemic model of the game’s structure.
内容与系统
游戏的内容和系统是其架构和主题的关键方面。在架构组织方面，复杂部分组和复杂部分组之间存在本质区别（如第 2 章所述）。复杂部分具有顺序交互，其中第 1 部分影响第 2 部分，第 2 部分影响第 3 部分（参见图 2.5）。这些连接不形成反馈回路；第 3 部分不会循环再次影响第 1 部分。在复杂系统中，部分会形成自我反馈的回路，这是一般系统的标志（参见图 2.6）。
A game’s content and systems are key aspects of its architecture and theme. In terms of architectural organization, there is an essential difference between groups of parts that are complicated and those that are complex (as discussed in Chapter 2). Those that are complicated have sequential interactions, where Part 1 affects Part 2, which affects Part 3 (refer to Figure 2.5). These connections form no feedback loops; Part 3 does not loop around to affect Part 1 again. In complex systems, parts do form loops that feedback on themselves, a hallmark of systems in general (refer to Figure 2.6).
游戏可以分为主要基于内容的游戏和主要基于系统的游戏。明确地说，所有游戏都具有一定数量的内容和系统；问题是游戏设计主要依赖于其中哪一个来决定游戏玩法。
Games can be separated into those that are mainly based on content versus those based primarily on systems. To be clear, all games have some amount of content and systems; the question is which of these a game design primarily depends on for the gameplay.
内容驱动的游戏
许多游戏都是基于内容而非系统。就游戏开发而言，内容包括设计师必须开发和组合的任何地点、物体和事件，以创建他们想要看到的游戏玩法。所有游戏都有一些内容，但有些游戏依靠特定的内容配置来创建游戏。这包括主要基于关卡或任务的游戏，设计师已经精确地规划了玩家将遇到的物体和障碍的位置和时间。
Many games are based on content rather than systems. In terms of game development, content includes any locations, objects, and events that the designers must develop and assemble to create the gameplay they want to see. All games have some content, but some games rely on specific configurations of content to create the game. This includes games that are primarily level or mission based, where the designers have laid out exactly the placement and timing of objects and obstacles the player will encounter.
在这类游戏中，游戏主要是线性的，玩家沿着游戏设计师布置的路径前进，体验并消费为玩家创建的内容。玩家的主要目标由游戏明确定义，他们在路径上面临的对抗形式很明确，他们的决定（无论是机会还是结果可能性）都是由设计师预先确定的。一旦玩家完成了一个关卡或整个游戏，他们可能会再次重玩，但基本体验不会有太大不同：他们可能会创建隐含的目标（例如，“打破我之前最快的时间”），但整体游戏玩法和体验不会改变。换句话说，内容驱动的游戏很少出现突发事件；事实上，设计师经常努力防止突发结果，因为它们本质上是不可预测的，因此无法测试，并且有可能造成糟糕的游戏体验。
In such games, the play is primarily linear, as the player progresses along a path laid out by the game designer, experiencing—and consuming—the content created for players. The player’s primary goals are explicitly defined by the game, the forms of opposition they face are clear along the path, and their decisions are predetermined (both in opportunity and outcome possibilities) by the designer. Once a player has completed a level, or the entire game, they may replay it again, but the essential experience will not differ significantly: they may create implicit goals (for example, “beat my previous fastest time”), but the overall gameplay and experience do not change. Another way of saying all of this is that content-driven games show little emergence; in fact, designers often work hard to prevent emergent results, as they are inherently unpredictable and thus untestable and risk creating a poor gameplay experience.
设计师可以通过创建新关卡或其他对象为内容驱动型游戏添加更多玩法，但游戏从根本上来说内容受限，因为游戏内容直接由设计师创作。内容创作本身成为开发者的瓶颈，因为玩家消费新内容的速度比开发者创作的速度要快，而添加新内容的成本越来越高。这有时被称为游戏开发中的“内容跑步机”。使用这种跑步机可以让开发过程更加可预测（这对游戏开发公司来说是一个重要因素），但代价是需要庞大的开发团队来创作所需的所有内容，并且有玩家认为其创新性不够的风险。
Designers can add more gameplay to content-driven games by creating a new level or other objects, but the game is fundamentally content-limited because it is so directly authored by the designers. The creation of content itself becomes a bottleneck for the developers, as players can consume new content faster than the developers can create it, and adding new content becomes an increasingly expensive proposition. This is sometimes known as the “content treadmill” in game development. Being on this treadmill makes for a more predictable development process (an important factor to game development companies), if at the cost of needing huge development teams to create all the content needed—and the risk of not being seen as being sufficiently innovative by players.
在极端情况下，当新内容没有增加或改变底层标记和规则（游戏中可能出现的部分、状态和行为）时，玩家很快就会意识到新内容中几乎没有什么新意，并对游戏感到厌倦。当玩家意识到游戏完全符合现有的心理模型时，一开始他们会感到很熟悉；但一旦他们意识到没有什么新东西可学，也没有什么新技能可掌握，他们就会感到无聊并停止玩游戏。这种情况发生在从其他游戏“换皮”的游戏上，这些游戏只改变了背景和艺术风格（例如，从中世纪到科幻或蒸汽朋克），但底层游戏玩法保持不变。尝试过这种做法的游戏开发公司发现，玩家一开始很热情，但很快就会对游戏失去兴趣，因为游戏中没有新东西可学或体验。
In extreme cases, when new content does not add to or change the underlying tokens and rules (the parts, states, and behaviors possible in the game), players quickly realize that there is little novel in the new content and become bored with the game. When a player realizes that a game fits exactly with an existing mental model, at first this can be comfortingly familiar; but as soon as they realize that there is nothing new to be learned and no new mastery to be attained, they become bored and stop playing the game. This has been the case with games that have been “reskinned” from other games, where only the context and art style changed (for example, from medieval to science fiction or steampunk) but the underlying gameplay remained the same. Game development companies that have tried this have learned that players are enthusiastic at first but then burn out of the game quickly as there is nothing new to be learned or experienced.
系统游戏
与内容驱动型游戏不同，系统型游戏使用各部分之间的复杂交互（即反馈循环）来创建游戏世界、对抗、决策和目标。在此类游戏中，设计师不必编写玩家体验的具体内容。设计师不会为玩家创建一条路径（或一小组分支），而是设置条件来引导玩家创建自己的路径——正如二阶设计讨论中所述，在广阔的游戏空间中，可能存在大量路径。这条路径通常会在每次玩游戏时发生变化，即使重玩多次，也能让游戏保持新鲜感和吸引力。
In contrast to content-driven games, systemic games use complex interactions (that is, feedback loops) between parts to create the game world, opposition, decisions, and goals. In such games, the designer does not have to author the specifics of the player’s experience. The designer doesn’t create a path (or a small set of branches) for the player to follow but sets up the conditions that will guide the player in creating their own path—one of a large number in a vast game-space that could exist, as described in the discussion of second-order design. This path typically changes each time the game is played, keeping the game feeling fresh and engaging even after many replays.
游戏设计师 Daniel Cook在他的博客Lostgarden上出色地描述了在设计他公司的空战游戏《蒸汽鸟：生存》时采用内容驱动方法和系统驱动方法之间的区别：
Game designer Daniel Cook wrote an excellent description of the difference between taking a content-driven versus systemic approach to designing his company’s air-combat game Steambirds: Survival on his blog, Lostgarden:
当游戏缺乏吸引力时，我们会添加新系统，例如让坠毁的飞机掉落能量增强道具。更传统的方法可能是手动创建更详细的场景，其中包含令人惊喜的情节，当您与预定触发器相撞时，一群飞机会从隐藏的云层中弹出。然而，通过专注于新的通用系统，我们创造了一个充满迷人战术可能性的整个世界。你是去寻找治疗能量增强道具，还是转身面对 6 点钟方向的飞镖？这是一个由系统驱动的有意义的决定，而不是廉价的作者刺激。（Cook 2010）
When the game wasn’t engaging, we added new systems such as having downed planes drop powerups. A more traditional approach might be to manually create more detailed scenarios with surprise plot points where a pack of planes pop out of a hidden cloud when you collide with a pre-determined trigger. However, by instead focusing on new general systems, we created an entire universe of fascinating tactical possibilities. Do you head for the heal powerup or do you turn to face the Dart at 6 o’clock? That’s a meaningful decision driven by systems, not a cheap authored thrill. (Cook 2010)
即使系统性游戏为玩家设定了明确的总体目标（例如，《文明》中的“征服世界”或《超越光速》中的“摧毁叛军母舰”），玩家也会自行做出决定，从而创造出无数条通往该目标的路线之一。游戏系统提供了充足的不确定性和不同的潜在组合，以确保游戏空间不会崩溃为一条最佳战略路径。当然，这并非完全随机，而是本质上是系统的。例如，虽然系统性游戏每次玩时都会创建新的物理景观，但由有效子系统构建的游戏可能会将仙人掌放置在炎热沙漠中的随机位置，但不会让北极熊出现在那里。
Even when a systemic game sets an overarching explicit goal for the player (for example, Civilization’s “conquer the world” or FTL’s “destroy the rebel mothership”), the player makes his own decisions and thereby creates one of innumerable routes to this goal. The game systems provide ample uncertainty and different potential combinations to ensure that the game-space does not collapse into a single optimal strategic path through it. Of course, this is not entirely random but is itself systemic in nature. For example, while a systemic game may create a new physical landscape each time it’s played, a game constructed with effective subsystems might place cacti at random locations in a hot desert but would not make polar bears appear there.
平衡内容和系统
即使是在高度系统化的游戏中，游戏开发者仍然需要创建支持内容，游戏设计通常会定义一组明确的总体目标。同样，在内容驱动的游戏中，有许多子系统在工作（经济、战斗等），但它们存在于主要线性/复杂的环境中，而不是系统/复杂的环境中。因此，内容和系统并不是相互排斥的，而是代表游戏设计的平衡点。
Even in highly systemic games, game developers still need to create supporting content, and the game design will often define an overarching set of explicit goals. Likewise, in a content-driven game, there are many subsystems at work (economy, combat, and so on), but they exist within a primarily linear/complicated context rather than a systemic/complex one. Thus, content and systems are not exclusive but represent balance points for game design.
本书的重点是设计系统性游戏，同时在适当的时候利用线性游戏元素。基本思想是，随着时间的推移，游戏会变得更加系统化——更加复杂，而不仅仅是更加复杂——并且创建系统性游戏总体上会带来更具吸引力、更有趣、更耐玩的游戏。
The focus in this book is on designing systemic games while making use of linear aspects of play when appropriate. The fundamental idea is that games are becoming more systemic over time—more complex rather than just more complicated—and creating systemic games leads to more engaging, enjoyable, replayable games overall.
Autotelic 体验
自成目的的体验是一种本身具有目的的体验，而不是依赖于某些外部目标或必要性。当玩家根据自己的动机创建自己的隐性目标，并能够在游戏中采取行动，而其结果对玩家具有内在价值时，他们的目标和行动就是自成目的的。
An autotelic experience is an experience that has a purpose in itself rather than being dependent on some external goal or necessity. When a player creates their own implicit goals from their own motivations and is able to take actions in the game whose results have intrinsic value to the player, then their goals and actions are autotelic.
正如前面所讨论的，玩游戏的体验必然是独立的、无关紧要的和自愿的，但它本身也必须令人满意；记住杜威说过的话——玩游戏不能服从于其他目的，否则就失去了游戏的本质。这是许多“游戏化”努力经常搁浅的一点：你可以让某样东西看起来像游戏，但如果玩家的体验没有被视为虽然体验本身并不具有价值，但很快它就服从于“外部需要所强加的目的”（Dewey 1934），从而变成了游戏以外的东西。
As discussed earlier, the experience of playing a game is necessarily separate, nonconsequential, and voluntary, but it must also be satisfying in and of itself; remember what Dewey said—that the play of the game must not be subordinate to some other end, or it loses the essential nature of play. This is the point on which many “gamification” efforts often run aground: you can make something look like a game, but if the player’s experience is not seen as valuable simply for the experience itself, it quickly becomes subordinated “to an end imposed by external necessity” (Dewey 1934) and thus becomes something other than play.
游戏中的明确目标有助于玩家学习游戏并创建自己的游戏心智模型。然而，最终，用一个又一个明确的目标牵着玩家的鼻子走，变成了许多人所说的“磨难”——一个又一个的任务或探索，但玩家认为没有一个具有内在价值。每个任务或探索都是为了明确的外部奖励而完成的。对于许多玩家来说，这可能更像是一份工作而不是游戏。这种方法也倾向于更多地依赖于为游戏创建昂贵的、短暂的内容，而不是常青的系统。
Explicit goals in a game help the player learn the game and create their own mental model of it. Eventually, however, leading the player by the nose with one explicit goal after another becomes what many call “the grind”—one mission or quest after another but none that the player finds inherently valuable. Each mission or quest is done for an explicit, external reward. For many players, this can become more like a job than play. This approach also tends to rely more on creating expensive, ephemeral content rather than evergreen systems for the game.
与这些外在的、明确的目标相反，许多游戏（尤其是那些玩家多年来反复玩的游戏，如国际象棋、围棋、文明等）允许玩家创建自己的内在、隐性目标。在游戏初期，玩家可能会被预先设定目标去完成，但最终，随着玩家构建了足够先进的游戏心理模型，这些目标就会让位于玩家为了自己的乐趣而创建的隐性、自成目的的目标。这种自成目的的游戏以游戏中的主题、系统元素为基础并得到其支持，必然会给玩家带来更多吸引力、乐趣和意义。
In contrast to these extrinsic, explicit goals, many games—in particular those that players return to over and over for years (Chess, Go, Civilization, and so on)—enable the players to create their own intrinsic, implicit goals. Early on, a player may be given predefined objectives to complete, but eventually, as the player constructs a sufficiently advanced mental model of the game, these give way to implicit, autotelic goals created by the player for their own enjoyment. This autotelic play is based on and supported by the thematic, systemic elements in the game and is inevitably more engaging, enjoyable, and meaningful to the player.
叙述
叙事的简单定义是，以对读者或观众有意义的方式，讲述一个或多个人经历的一系列相关事件。事件本身和经历这些事件的人都很重要。单独的一系列事件不是一个故事，对某人时间流逝的叙述也不是一个故事，在此期间没有发生任何值得注意的事情。大多数游戏都有叙事元素；只有最抽象的游戏似乎完全没有任何有意义的相关事件系列。
A brief working definition of narrative is a recounting of one or more individuals living through a series of connected events in a way that becomes meaningful to the reader or viewer. Both the events and the individuals living through them are important. A series of events alone is not a story, nor is a recounting of time passing for someone during which nothing noteworthy happens. Most games have elements of narrative in them; only the most abstract seem to be wholly free of any sort of connected series of events that carry meaning.
叙事很重要，因为它连接了架构和主题：就故事如何由底层功能元素组合而成而言，它具有内向的、以开发人员为中心的一面；就为玩家设置舞台并告知他们游戏内容而言，它具有面向玩家的主题一面。
Narrative is important in that it bridges both architecture and theme: it has an inward, developer-focused side in terms of how the story is put together out of the underlying functional elements, and it has a player-facing thematic side in how it sets the stage for the players and informs them of what the game is about.
在游戏中，叙事或故事可能是玩家体验的重点，也可能只是游戏的前提。无论游戏玩法中是否有其他故事，前提都会告诉玩家在遇到世界时为什么会是这个样子，而叙事通常会让他们了解他们在游戏中的目标是什么（例如，纠正错误、杀死一条龙、发现一个秘密）。通过这种方式，游戏背后或游戏内的故事可以帮助玩家定位自己并开始创建他们对游戏世界的心理模型。同样，叙事元素可以在游戏中用作奖励，进一步向玩家介绍这个世界（例如，使用叙事过场动画或类似的说明性/启示性故事）。
In a game, the narrative or story may be the focus of the player’s experience, or it may be only the game’s premise. Whether or not there is additional story in the gameplay, the premise informs the player as to why the world is the way it is when they encounter it, and the narrative typically gives them an idea of what their goals are in the game (for example, right a wrong, kill a dragon, discover a secret). In this way, the story behind or within the game helps the player situate themselves and begin creating their mental model of the game’s world. In the same way, narrative elements may be used during the game as rewards, further informing the player about the world (for example, using narrative cut-scenes or similar expository/revelatory story).
以故事为核心的游戏被称为故事驱动型游戏。在这类游戏中，玩家扮演特定角色，做出选择以解决故事中的各个危机点，并最终走向结局。在架构方面，这类游戏往往更注重内容而非系统。（虽然也有故事源自底层系统的游戏，但这种情况很少见。）在基于故事的游戏中，玩家的对手、目标和决策点由设计师定义，玩家很少有机会改变它们。从主题上讲，这类游戏必须在推动故事朝特定方向发展（从而将游戏空间缩小到一条不可改变的路径）与让玩家自己做决定之间取得平衡。游戏的指导性越强，玩家做出的决定就越少，他们的角色就越被动。但如果游戏没有指导玩家的进程，他们可能会完全错过故事（及其昂贵的内容），游戏也可能无法有效地传达其主题。
Games with a story built in as the backbone of the player’s ongoing experience are called story-driven games. In these, the player takes on the role of a particular character, making choices to work through various crisis points in the story and to an eventual end. On the architectural side, such games tend to be more content driven than systemic. (Although games where the story arises from underlying systems are also possible, few examples exist.) In story-based games, the player’s opposition, goals, and decision points are defined by the designer, and rarely does the player have the opportunity to alter them. Thematically, such games have to balance driving the story in a particular direction (and thus narrowing the play-space potentially down to a single unalterable path) against giving the player the ability to make their own decisions. The more directive the game is, the fewer decisions the player makes, and the more passive their role becomes. But if the game does not direct the player’s course, they may miss the story (and its expensive content) altogether, and the game may not effectively communicate its theme.
基于故事的游戏可能非常有趣，但往往没有太多的重玩价值。在某些情况下，玩家有足够的选择，探索游戏空间的其他部分可以提供更多的重玩体验。游戏《旧共和国武士》就是一个例子；在这个游戏中，玩家决定将角色塑造为“光明面”或“黑暗面”绝地武士，并根据这些选择以不同的方式体验内置故事。但即使在这里，也只有几个可能的结局。这样的叙事结构通常会导致路径变窄，原因仅仅是构建多个结局的内容实在是太昂贵了。
Story-based games can be immensely enjoyable but tend not to have a lot of replay value. In some cases, the player has sufficient options that exploring other parts of the game-space provides for more replay experiences. The game Knights of the Old Republic is an example of this; in this game, players decide to build a character as a “light side” or “dark side” Jedi and experience the built-in story differently depending on those choices. Even here, though, there are only a couple of possible endings. Such narrative construction typically leads to a narrowing of paths, if for no other reason than building the content for multiple endings is simply too expensive.
系统性游戏可以有一个前提，让玩家朝某个方向前进，然后将后续事件留给他们自己决定。在这类游戏中，可能的对抗形式由设计师设定，但玩家的选择（以及设计中的潜在随机性）决定了玩家如何以及何时面对这些对抗。在这种情况下，玩家在决策和设定自己的目标方面有很大的自由度。例如， Terraria为程序生成的世界提供了一个基本的前提，一旦游戏开始，玩家几乎可以完全决定他们在游戏中的进程。同样，在经典的系统性游戏中，如《席德·梅尔的海盗》，玩家每次都居住在同一个世界中，并有一个关于他们如何成为海盗的基本故事。一旦游戏开始，他们就可以真正规划自己的路线，按照他们选择追求的可选故事相关目标前进。在这些游戏中，故事不是书面的，但玩家仍然会体验到。
A systemic game can have a premise that sets the player going in a particular direction but then leaves later events up to them. In such games, the possible forms of opposition are set by the designer, but the player’s choices (and potential randomness in the design) determine how and when the player confronts them. In these situations, the player has a great deal of latitude in decision making and setting their own goals. Terraria, for example, provides a bare-bones premise for the procedurally generated world, and once play begins, the player may determine almost entirely their course in the game. Likewise, in classic systemic games like Sid Meier’s Pirates, the player inhabits essentially the same world each time, having a basic narrative set up for how they became a pirate. Once play begins, they can literally chart their own course, following optional story-related goals they may pursue if they choose. In these games, the narrative is not written but is experienced by the player nonetheless.
主题、经验和意义
游戏的主题由游戏的标记、规则和功能元素构成，但又超越它们。主题是游戏的主题，与游戏设计师希望为玩家提供的体验类型有关。游戏可能涉及成为英雄冒险家、鬼鬼祟祟的小偷、熟练的宝石商人或伟大的帝国建造者；寻找真爱；在背叛中幸存；或任何其他可以想象到的经历。
A game’s theme is built from and yet supersedes its tokens and rules and its functional elements. The theme is what the game is about and relates to the type of experience the game designer wishes to provide for the players. The game may be about being a heroic adventurer, a skulking thief, a skilled gem merchant, or great empire builder; finding true love; surviving a betrayal; or any other imaginable experience.
主题是整个游戏中面向玩家的方面。它为玩家提供总体框架和方向，作为玩家心智模型、决策和目标的背景。玩家必须根据主题来解释游戏的标记和规则，以便创建心智模型、做出有意义的决策并设定有效的目标。如果玩家能够做到这一点——如果游戏的结构、功能、架构和主题元素有效地结合在一起形成一个系统——然后游戏和玩家共同创造意义。这种意义最终是整个玩家+游戏系统的结果，是这两个子系统通过游戏结合在一起的结果。
The theme is the player-facing side of the game as a whole. It provides overall scaffolding and direction for the player, acting as the context for the player’s mental model, decisions, and goals. The player has to interpret the game’s tokens and rules in light of the theme in order to create a mental model, make meaningful decisions, and set effective goals. If the player is able to do so—if the structural, functional, architectural, and thematic elements of the game combine effectively together as a system—then the game and the player together create meaning. This meaning is ultimately the result of the overall player+game system, the effect of the combination of these two subsystems via play.
这并不意味着主题需要特别深刻或深奥。它只需要与游戏中的结构和功能元素保持一致，并帮助推动玩家前进。即使在最系统化、非故事性的游戏中，游戏设计师也必须牢记他们试图创造的体验以及体现这种体验所需的架构元素。几乎所有成功的游戏——即使是最“开放世界”的游戏——都有定向体验和主题，尽管有时可能有点单薄。例如，在Minecraft中，总体主题是开放式探索和制作新物品。这在主题上并不深刻，但对于许多玩家来说，这足以开始建立游戏的心理模型并掌握世界；任何更多的东西只会妨碍他们。
This does not mean that the theme needs to be particularly deep or profound. It only needs to be consistent with the structural and functional elements in the game and help propel the player forward. Even in the most systemic, non-story games, it is important for the game designer to keep in mind the experience they are trying to create and the architectural elements needed to embody it. Nearly all successful games—even the most “open world” ones—have a directed experience and theme, though sometimes it can be a bit thin. For example, in Minecraft the overarching theme is one of open-ended exploration and crafting new objects. That’s not thematically deep, but it is sufficient for many players to begin building a mental model of the game and mastering the world; anything more would just get in their way.
然而，当游戏设计师只包含最基本的故事前提或不将主题与游戏架构联系起来时，游戏玩法就会受到影响。例如，无人深空 (No Man's Sky)游戏允许玩家探索几乎无限数量的星球——但由于游戏既没有提供明确的目标，也不允许玩家创建许多自己的隐性目标，几乎完全没有主题的体验最终会变得平淡无奇。世界模型在技术上很深奥，但不支持深层心理模型或连贯的主题。缺乏有意义的决策点和内在的玩家目标是由于缺乏主题（设计中的向下因果关系），并阻止了新兴主题的出现（向上因果关系）。
However, when game designers include just the barest of story premises or don’t connect the theme to the game’s architecture, gameplay suffers. The game No Man’s Sky allows the player to explore all over an almost endless number of planets, for example—but as the game neither provides explicit goals nor allows players to create many of their own implicit goals, the almost entirely themeless experience ultimately falls flat. The model of the world is technically deep but not in a way that supports a deep mental model or coherent theme. The lack of meaningful decision points and intrinsic player goals comes from the lack of theme (downward causality in the design) and prevents an emergent theme from arising (upward causality).
同样，棋盘游戏Splendor 的视觉效果非常漂亮，其游戏机制也非常吸引人。然而，游戏的主题（宝石商人）与游戏玩法的联系非常薄弱，游戏玩法通过游戏高度抽象的标记和规则来表达。因此，那些不喜欢游戏机制的人通常会发现游戏无法吸引他们的注意力。游戏设计没有在游戏架构和主题之间提供足够的联系，因此玩家可能难以从体验中产生内在意义。
Similarly, the board game Splendor is visually beautiful and has mechanics that are cognitively attractive. However, the theme (being a gem merchant) is only tenuously connected to the gameplay as expressed in the game’s highly abstract tokens and rules. As such, those who are not enamored of the game’s mechanics in and of themselves often find that the game does not hold their attention. The game design doesn’t provide a sufficient connection between the game’s architecture and its theme, and so players may have difficulty creating an internal sense of meaning from the experience.
随着游戏设计师对系统设计以及如何在系统游戏中体现故事和主题的了解越来越多，他们中的更多人将制作具有广泛而深入的游戏空间的游戏，玩家可以在其中探索游戏主题的许多不同方面。这些游戏通常可能与强大的叙事相结合，避免过度引导玩家进入几个不同的选择或让他们陷入主题贫乏和无趣的游戏空间。
As game designers learn more about systemic design and how to embody story and theme in systemic games, more of them will make games with broad and deep play-spaces, within which players can explore many different sides of the game’s theme. These games may often be coupled with strong narratives that avoid either overly directing players into a few different options or leaving them stranded in a thematically barren and uninteresting play-space.
游戏设计的演变
The Evolution of Game Design
在对游戏进行了广泛的定义之后，我们的讨论简要转向游戏设计本身的发展，以了解它在过去几十年中是如何变化的。
Having developed an extensive definition of games, our discussion turns briefly to the development of game design itself to understand how it has changed over the past several decades.
数千年来，游戏一直是人类体验的一部分。已知最古老的游戏塞尼特是在 5,000 多年前的古埃及发明的（Piccione 1980）。我们对这款游戏最早的记录表明，它已经有了复杂的标记和规则，这表明它很早就为人所知并得到了发展。从那时起，游戏一直是世界各地文化中的一种消遣方式。然而，直到 20 世纪末的技术革命，游戏设计才成为一项公认的活动，而不是临时创建游戏的副作用。
Games have been part of the human experience for millennia. The oldest known game, Senet, was invented more than 5,000 years ago in ancient Egypt (Piccione 1980). Our oldest records of this game show it as already having elaborate tokens and rules, indicating that it had been known and developed long before. Games have remained a pastime in cultures around the world since then. However, it wasn’t until the technological revolution of the late 20th century that game design became a recognized activity of its own rather than being a side effect of the ad hoc creation of games.
很难说游戏设计何时开始成为一个领域，而不是一小群设计师偶尔从事的集体爱好。然而，可以肯定地说，至少从 20 世纪 80 年代初开始，它就一直是一个众所周知的实践领域。克里斯·克劳福德 (Chris Crawford) 的《计算机游戏设计艺术》一书出版于 1984 年，被认为是首次将游戏设计作为一个独立领域进行认真研究 (Wolf and Perron 2003)。克劳福德后来出版了《计算机游戏设计杂志》 (1987-1996)，并于 1988 年在他的客厅里组织了第一届计算机游戏开发者大会 (Crawford 2010)——该会议现已非常专业，每年吸引数万人参加。
It’s difficult to say when game design started as a field rather than as a collective hobby practiced sporadically by a small group of designers. However, it’s safe to say that it has been around as a known area of practice since at least the early 1980s. Chris Crawford’s book The Art of Computer Game Design was published in 1984 and has been cited as the first serious examination of game design as a field of its own (Wolf and Perron 2003). Crawford would go on to publish the Journal of Computer Game Design (1987–1996) and organize the first Computer Game Developer’s Conference in his living room in 1988 (Crawford 2010)—a conference that is now thoroughly professional and attracts tens of thousands of people each year.
当然，在 Crawford 的书问世之前就有游戏设计师，但在 20 世纪 70 年代末和 80 年代初早期的计算机/视频游戏以及详细的纸质模拟和角色扮演游戏出现之前，几乎没有公认的共享游戏设计工艺。在 20 世纪 80 年代和 90 年代，直到 21 世纪初，大多数成为游戏设计师的人或多或少都陷入了其中：他们来自戏剧、人类学、心理学或计算机科学等领域——如果他们来自某个领域的话；许多人只是热衷于尝试游戏设计的玩家，发现自己有这方面的天赋。当时和现在一样，对许多人来说，游戏设计主要是一种爱好，偶尔也会有少数人发现他们也许可以把它变成一种职业。
There were game designers prior to Crawford’s book, of course, but there was little in the way of an acknowledged shared craft of game design before the advent of both early computer/video games and detailed paper simulation and role-playing games in the late 1970s and early 1980s. During the 1980s and 1990s, up until the early 2000s, most people who became game designers more or less fell into it: they wandered in from fields like theater, anthropology, psychology, or computer science—when they came from a field at all; many were just avid players who tried their hand at game design and found they had a talent for it. Then as now, for many people game design has primarily been a hobby, and now and again a few figure out that maybe they can turn it into a career.
自 21 世纪初以来，游戏设计作为一门教育学科已经取得了长足的发展。然而，多年来，至少在 2010 年左右，游戏行业普遍认为大多数游戏设计学位无法培养出优秀的专业设计师。不仅大多数提供这些学位的大学不知道他们应该教什么（教授这些课程的人中很少有人是专业游戏设计师），甚至游戏设计师也很难清楚地说明成为一名游戏设计师需要做些什么。
Since the early 2000s, game design as an educational field has gained ground. Nevertheless, for many years, at least up until 2010 or so, most game design degrees were generally seen in the games industry as not creating strong, professional designers. Not only did the large majority of universities offering these degrees not know what they should be teaching (few of those teaching these courses were themselves professional game designers), even game designers had a difficult time articulating what went into the occupation of being a game designer.
因此，游戏设计仍然是一个难以教授的领域，因为它仍在形成中。即使是现在，大多数高级游戏设计师也都是通过古老的学徒制学习大部分技能的：你制作一款游戏，看看哪些行得通，哪些行不通。如果你很幸运，你会得到一份工作，可以跟随更高级的游戏设计师并向他们学习。而且，即使如今游戏设计课程有所改进，人们学习游戏设计的首要方式还是通过实践。设计、开发、测试和发布游戏的过程仍然无可替代。
As a result, game design remains a difficult area to teach because it’s still forming. Most senior game designers even now have learned most of their craft by the age-old apprenticeship method: you make a game and see what works or doesn’t. If you’re lucky, you get a job where you can shadow a more senior game designer and learn from them. And, even with improved game design curricula today, the number-one way people learn game design is by doing it. There is still no substitute for going through the process of designing, developing, testing, and launching a game.
游戏设计理论
Toward Game Design Theory
游戏设计师现在已经远远超越了学徒制和简单的实践。数字（基于计算机）和模拟（桌面或棋盘）游戏的数量和类型都呈爆炸式增长。这样做的好处之一是，自 2010 年左右以来，实际的游戏设计理论开始以更清晰、更普遍适用的方式积累起来。（如前所述，游戏设计理论与博弈论不同，也几乎没有关系。后者属于数学和经济学的领域，与抽象情况下高度受限的决策有关，很少与游戏设计有任何关联或影响。）
Game designers are now well into a movement beyond apprenticeship and simple praxis. There has been an explosion in the number and types of both digital (computer-based) and analog (table-top or board) games that are being made. One of the benefits of this is that just since 2010 or so, actual game design theory has begun to accumulate in more articulate, generally applicable ways. (As noted earlier, game design theory is not the same as and has little to do with game theory. The latter is the province of mathematics and economics, having to do with highly constrained decision making in abstract situations, and rarely has any relevance to or effect on game design.)
还有很长的路要走，毫无疑问，未来几年该领域将增加更多的游戏设计理论。然而，游戏设计作为一个领域，已经到了这样的一个阶段：任何想学习游戏设计的人都可以通过将原则、理论和框架以及示例和练习融入到他们的设计工作中来加速他们的学习。
There is a long way to go yet, and no doubt a lot more game design theory will be added in the field in coming years. Game design as a field is, however, at the point where anyone wishing to learn game design can speed their education by incorporating principles, theories, and frameworks along with examples and exercises into their design work.
如今，设计和制作自己的游戏比以往任何时候都容易。游戏设计师可以使用大量免费或低成本的技术、工具和分发方法，而这些在十年前是无法想象的。工具与经过充分测试的原则和框架的结合将使您更快地成为更成功的游戏设计师。
It is easier than ever today to design and build your own games. Game designers have available a wealth of free or low-cost technologies, tools, and distribution methods that were unimaginable just a decade ago. The combination of tools and well-tested principles and frameworks will make you a much more successful game designer much faster.
概括
Summary
在本章中，您首先从各种哲学家和游戏设计师的角度详细研究了游戏，然后从系统的角度（应用系统思维）研究了游戏。您已经看到以下内容：
In this chapter, you have examined games in detail, first from the views of various philosophers and game designers and then in systemic terms, as applied systems thinking. You have seen that the following:
游戏发生在一个独立的、非连续的情境（“魔法圈”）中，由其自己的标记和规则来表达。
Games take place in a separate, nonconsequential context (the “magic circle”) expressed by their own tokens and rules.
玩游戏必然是自愿的，需要参与，而不仅仅是观察。
Playing a game is necessarily voluntary and requires participation, not just observation.
游戏为玩家提供了一个确定的世界、有意义的决策、对抗、互动和不同类型的目标。
Games provide players with a defined world, meaningful decisions, opposition, interaction, and different types of goals.
本章还从系统的角度对游戏进行了详细的研究，重点关注以下内容：
This chapter also provides a detailed examination of games in systemic terms, focusing on the following:
结构：游戏的各个部分——游戏的标记和规则，即任何游戏的“名词和动词”
Structures: The game’s parts—its tokens and rules that are the “nouns and verbs” of any game
功能元素：由名词和动词组成的“短语”循环操作组件，使游戏的世界模型成为二阶创造，从而形成玩家的心智模型以及有意义的决策和目标
Functional elements: The looping operational components created as “phrases” from the nouns and verbs that enable the game’s world model as a second-order creation and, thus, the player’s mental model along with meaningful decisions and goals
建筑和主题结构：整个游戏体验；其内容和系统的平衡、叙事以及整体游戏体验
Architectural and thematic constructions: The whole of the game experience; its balance of content and systems, narrative, and the overall experience of play
从结构、功能方面以及架构和主题的结合角度来理解游戏是第 2 章讨论的系统思维的第一个应用。
Understanding games in terms of their structures, functional aspects, and the combination of architecture and theme is the first application of systems thinking discussed in Chapter 2.
本章为下一主题奠定了基础，即详细探讨整个系统的另一部分，即游戏玩法：玩家互动性、参与度和趣味性。有了这些基础，您就可以开始应用这些概念并了解有关游戏设计过程的详细信息。
This chapter has set the stage for the next topic, a detailed exploration of the other part of the overall system that is the game as played: player interactivity, engagement, and fun. With these foundations in place, you will be ready to begin applying these concepts and learn more about the details of the process of game design.
1.法语中，Les Jeux et les Hommes大致意思是“游戏/玩耍和男人”，强调在法语和 Caillois 看来，游戏和玩耍本质上是同义词 ( jeu )。两者缺一不可。
1. In French, Les Jeux et les Hommes, loosely “Games/Play and Men,” highlighting that in that language and in Caillois’ view, game and play are essentially synonymous (jeu). One does not occur without the other.
2.有些人可能会将“选择你自己的冒险”类书籍视为例外。这些书籍提供了有限的选择，读者可以决定遵循哪条路线，从而使故事以不同的方式展开。这些书籍实际上起源于 20 世纪 70 年代后期的“书籍形式的 RPG [角色扮演游戏]”（CYOA 的历史nd），是叙事游戏领域的许多混合体的代表。
2. Some may cite “choose your own adventure” books as an exception. These provide limited choice where the reader can decide which course to follow, enabling the story to unfold in different ways. These books in fact originated as “an RPG [role-playing game] in book form” in the late 1970s (History of CYOA n.d.) and are representative of many hybrids on the narrative-game spectrum.
3.随机决定既包括完全随机的结果，例如，一个数字可以以相同的概率取 1 到 100 之间的任何值，也包括加权结果，即某些数字比其他数字的概率更大，例如统计正态分布或钟形曲线分布。有关更多信息，请参阅第 9 章。
3. Random determination includes both wholly random results, where, for example, a number can take any value between 1 and 100 with equal probability, and weighted results, where some numbers are more probable than others, such as in a statistical normal or bell curve distribution. See Chapter 9 for more on this.
第四章
CHAPTER 4
互动性和趣味性
INTERACTIVITY AND FUN
游戏必须具有互动性和趣味性；否则，人们就不会玩。但互动性和趣味性这两个词到底是什么意思呢？更全面、更详细地理解这些概念对于有效的游戏设计至关重要。
Games must be interactive and fun; if they aren’t, they don’t get played. But what do the words interactive and fun really mean? A fuller and more detailed understanding of these concepts is crucial to effective game design.
在本章中，我们将系统地了解互动性，以及玩家在与游戏互动和参与游戏时脑海中的想法。有了这种理解，我们能够系统地、实用地定义互动性和参与度如何创造乐趣，以及如何将它们融入游戏中。
In this chapter we construct a systemic understanding of interactivity, along with what goes on in the player’s mind as part of interacting with and becoming engaged by a game. With this understanding, we are able to define in systemic, practical terms how interactivity and engagement create fun and how we can build them into games.
玩家在游戏中的角色作为一个系统
The Player’s Part of the Game as a System
在第 3 章“游戏和游戏设计的基础”中，我们定义了游戏和整个游戏+玩家系统。正如那里所指出的，只有当游戏和玩家结合在一起时，游戏体验才会存在，每个玩家都是一个更大系统的一部分（见图4.1）。游戏通过结构、功能和主题元素（定义游戏的部分、循环和整体）创建自己的内部系统。
In Chapter 3, “Foundations of Games and Game Design,” we defined games and the overall game+player system. As noted there, the playful experience exists only when both the game and the player come together, each as part of a larger system (see Figure 4.1). The game creates its own internal system with structural, functional, and thematic elements—the parts, loops, and whole that define the game.
图 4.1玩家和游戏都是子系统，它们共同构成了整个游戏+玩家系统。在这个多层次、分层的游戏+玩家系统的抽象视图中，每个系统都有自己的结构（部分）、功能（循环）和主题（整体）元素
Figure 4.1 Players and games are subsystems that together create the overall game+player system. In this abstract view of the multilevel, hierarchical game+player system, each has its own structural (parts), functional (loops), and thematic (whole) elements
在本章中，我们将研究玩家和游戏如何通过交互的出现过程创建更大的游戏+玩家系统。了解交互性使我们能够“进一步”深入玩家子系统的内部方面——玩家的心理模型——并了解它是如何作为游戏体验的一部分构建的。
In this chapter we examine how the player and game create the larger game+player system via the emergent process of interactivity. Understanding interactivity enables us to go “one level down” into the internal aspects of the player subsystem—the player’s mental model—and see how it is constructed as part of the experience of play.
玩家的心理模型与游戏的内部模型相对应，我们将在第 3 章中讨论。为了构建这个心理模型，玩家和游戏会以相互影响的方式行动，本章将对此进行详细讨论。通过这些相互影响，玩家可以实现其意图，测试和影响游戏的内部状态。游戏反过来会改变其状态，并逐步揭示其内部部分和循环。正如第 2 章“定义系统”中所讨论的，复杂系统就是通过这种相互循环的影响而创建的。正如您将在此处看到的，这种相互循环的循环是互动性、游戏性、参与度和趣味性背后的核心概念。
The player’s mental model corresponds to the game’s internal model, discussed in Chapter 3. To build this mental model, the player and the game each act in ways that affect the other, as discussed in detail in this chapter. Through these mutual effects, the player carries out his intentions to test and affect the game’s internal state. The game in turn changes its state and progressively reveals its internal parts and loops. As discussed in Chapter 2, “Defining Systems,” complex systems are created with such mutual looping effects. As you will see here, this mutual looping cycle is the core concept behind interactivity, gameplay, engagement, and fun.
互动性的系统方法
A Systemic Approach to Interactivity
互动性这个词在整个游戏行业和许多相关领域都有使用。我们经常认为这个词与玩家点击游戏中的按钮或图标时发生的事情有关，但它的含义远不止于此。互动性是玩游戏体验的核心，而且比以往任何时候都更普遍地存在于人类体验中。虽然互动性被认为是游戏与其他媒体形式的区别，但（Grodal 2000），由于地理和技术上的互联互通不断增加，当今世界的互动性远超过去。回想一下第 1 章“系统基础”，我们看到了联网计算设备的数量从 1984 年的仅约 1,000 台增至如今的接近 500 亿台，每台设备都实现了技术互联和人与人之间的互联。这是人类历史上前所未有的变化。然而，尽管这种变化巨大，互动在我们生活中无处不在，尽管在通信、人机交互 (HCI) 和游戏设计领域对这一主题进行了许多讨论，但我们仍然缺乏对这一核心概念的清晰、实用的定义。
The word interactivity is used throughout the games industry and in many related fields. We often treat this word as having to do with what happens when the player taps on a button or clicks on an icon in a game, but it is much deeper than that. Interactivity is central to the experience of playing a game and, more than ever before, common to the human experience. While interactivity has been cited as what differentiates games from other forms of media (Grodal 2000), our world is far more interactive today than in the past as a result of increasing interconnections geographically and technologically. Recall from Chapter 1, “Foundations of Systems,” the shift we have seen from only about 1,000 connected computing devices in 1984 to a number approaching 50 billion today, each enabling both technological and human-to-human connectivity. This is an unprecedented change in human history. And yet, despite the magnitude of this change and the ubiquity of interactivity in our lives, and despite many discussions of the topic in the fields of communications, human–computer interaction (HCI), and game design, we still lack a clear, practical definition of this core concept.
根据韦氏词典，互动的意思是“相互或相互影响”。这个简明的定义直指互动事物或人的核心含义：两个或多个主体相互影响，通过各自的行为相互影响。拉斐利（1988）扩展了这个简单的定义，包括两个或多个主体在一系列交流中的概念，其中任何给定的消息都与之前的消息有上下文关联。这种交流可能是两个人面对面的交流；可能是通过技术手段（例如通过电话）进行的对话；也可能是人类或非人类主体之间的交流，例如人类与电脑游戏的互动。相比之下，过去一些作者曾认为，交互性仅存在于个体（Newhagen 2004）、通信技术或媒介（Sundar 2004）中，甚至仅存在于人与人之间的通信中，因为他们认为只有“人类才有超越自身编程的潜力”并且“机器只能根据其程序做出判断或决定”（Bretz 1983, 139），因此在某种程度上并不是真正意义上的交互性。
According to Webster’s, interactive means “mutually or reciprocally active.” This concise definition gets to the heart of what it means for something or someone to be interactive: there are two or more agents acting in relation to each other, mutually or reciprocally affecting each other by their actions. This simple definition was expanded on by Rafaeli (1988) to include the idea of two or more agents in a series of communication exchanges, where any given message is contextually related to earlier ones. This communication may be between two individuals face-to-face; in a conversation mediated by technology (for example, over the telephone); or between agents who may or may not be human, as in a human interacting with a computer game. By contrast, some authors have in the past argued that interactivity is resident only within the individual (Newhagen 2004), in the technology or medium used for communication (Sundar 2004), or even solely in human-to-human communications, on the assumption that only “the human has potential for transcending his or her programming” and that “the machine makes judgements or decisions only on the basis of its program” (Bretz 1983, 139) and is therefore somehow not truly interactive.
在游戏设计中，Chris Crawford 对交互性的定义反映了上文提到的 Rafaeli 的定义。Crawford 将交互性定义为“两个或多个活动代理之间的循环过程，其中每个代理交替聆听、思考和说话——一种对话”（1984，28）。事实证明，这是一种非常有用的看待交互性的方式，我们将在此概括。特别是，Crawford 的定义指出了任何交互的循环性质，其中不同部分（参与者）通过其行为相互影响。这听起来很像任何交互都形成一个系统，因此可以从系统视图中受益，包括部分、循环和整体。
In game design, Chris Crawford’s definition of interactivity reflects that of Rafaeli, cited above. Crawford characterized interactivity as “a cyclic process between two or more active agents in which each agent alternatively listens, thinks, and speaks—a conversation of sorts” (1984, 28). This turns out to be a highly useful way of looking at interactivity, and one that we will generalize here. In particular, Crawford’s definition calls out the cyclic nature of any interaction, where different parts (actors) affect each other by their behavior. It begins to sound very much as if any interaction forms a system and thus can benefit from a systemic view, including parts, loops, and wholes.
部分：交互结构
Parts: Interactivity Structures
任何交互系统的结构部分都是两个或多个参与者或代理；在游戏和任何其他交互环境中都是如此。在设计游戏时，我们假设至少有一个人参与交互循环。游戏中可以有多个计算机驱动的玩家（通常是可取的），但前提是至少有一个人参与。没有人类参与的“自行运行”的游戏对于测试很有用，但否则它会错过游戏体验的基本、有意义的方面，即需要人类参与者。
The structural parts of any interactive system are two or more actors or agents; this is true in games and any other interactive setting. In designing games, we assume that there is at least one human involved in the interactivity loop. It’s possible (and often desirable) to have multiple computer-driven players in a game but only if there is also at least one human there. A game “playing itself” without human involvement can be useful for testing, but otherwise it misses out on the essential, meaningful aspect of the experience of a game as played, one that requires a human participant.
系统中的每个部分（此处指玩家和游戏）都有自己的状态、边界和行为。交互式系统中的每个部分都使用其行为来影响其他部分的内部状态，但并非完全决定其他部分的内部状态。游戏中的参与者具有内部状态，例如健康、财富、库存、速度等，以及行为，例如交谈、攻击、躲避等。每个代理根据其内部状态使用其行为来影响其他代理，反过来又受到其行为的影响。
Each part in a system (here the player(s) and the game) has its own state, boundaries, and behaviors. Each part in an interactive system uses its behaviors to affect, but not wholly determine, the internal state of the others. In-game actors have an internal state such as health, wealth, inventory, speed, and so on, as well as behaviors such as talking, attacking, evading, and so on. Each agent uses its behaviors, based on its internal state, to affect others and is in turn affected by their behaviors.
内部状态
作为系统本身，玩家和游戏的内部状态必然是复杂的。人类玩家的内部状态最终是他们当前心理和情感处理的总和。就他们与游戏的互动而言，玩家的内部状态是他们对游戏的心理模型。1这包括他们对以下内容的理解：
As systems in themselves, the internal states of the player and a game are necessarily complex. The human player’s internal state is ultimately the totality of their current mental and emotional processing. As far as their interactions with the game are concerned, the player’s internal state is their mental model of the game.1 This includes their understanding of the following:
当前的游戏变量，例如健康、财富、国家人口、库存或任何与游戏环境相关的、与他们理解相关的变量
Current in-game variables, such as health, wealth, country population, inventory, or whatever is relevant in the game context for their understanding
游戏状态，特别是他们的理解如何根据最近的行动提供的反馈而改变
The game state, particularly how their understanding has changed based on feedback provided from their most recent actions
游戏中的直接、短期和长期目标，包括他们根据自己的行动对游戏中将发生什么的预测
The immediate, short-term, and long-term goals within the game, including their predictions of what will happen in the game based on their actions
过去决策的影响，以及他们从中学到的关于游戏的知识
The effects of past decisions and what they have learned about the game as a result of them
本章的大部分内容我们将重点关注这些元素以及玩家的整体心理状态；毕竟，我们制作游戏是为了人类。
We will spend much of this chapter focused on these elements and the player’s overall psychological state; it is, after all, for humans that we make games.
游戏的内部状态是游戏设计的实际体现，如第 3 章所述，本书的其余部分将对此进行更详细的探讨。它不仅包括与游戏相关的变量和规则，还包括确定游戏处理过程、何时接受玩家输入等的整体事件循环。在本章中，我们将游戏的内部状态视为更抽象的概念，以便专注于与玩家的互动。
The game’s internal state is the working embodiment of the game design as described in Chapter 3 and as explored in more detail throughout the rest of this book. It includes not only game-related variables and rules but also the overall event loop that determines the game’s processing, when it accepts input from the player, and so on. In this chapter we treat the game’s internal state as more abstract so as to focus on the interactions with the player.
行为
游戏中的动作由游戏设计师决定；玩家和非玩家角色（或其他角色）可以交谈、飞行、攻击或执行任何其他动作。这些行为必须由游戏启用和调解，并且只在游戏环境中发生。例如，如果游戏禁用了一项能力（例如通过“冷却”在使用后计时器停止后，演员无法使用该行为，直到该行为再次可用。非凡能力和限制都是游戏环境背景（魔法圈）中存在的一部分。
Actions in a game are whatever the game designers enable them to be; players and non-player characters (or other actors) may talk, fly, attack, or carry out any number of other actions. These behaviors are necessarily enabled and mediated by the game, occurring as they do only within the game’s context. If, for example, a game disables an ability (as by means of a “cooldown” timer after use), an actor cannot use that behavior until it becomes available again. Both extraordinary abilities and limitations are part of existing within the context, the magic circle, of the game environment.
玩家行为和认知负荷
玩家在游戏中的行为始于心理目标，是玩家对游戏的心理模型和意图的一部分。这些行为最终必须变成实际行为：玩家必须在棋盘上移动棋子、点击图标等等。从心理到实际的转变标志着从心理模型到行为的边界。
A player’s in-game behaviors begin as mental goals, part of the player’s mental model of the game and intent within it. These behaviors must at some point become physical: the player must move a piece on the board, click on an icon, and so on. The transition from mental to physical marks the boundary from mental model to behavior.
在游戏中采取行动时，玩家通常通过设备提供输入，例如敲击键盘、移动或启动（例如，点击）鼠标或其他控制器，或在对触摸敏感的控件上提供手势（例如，点击或滑动）。在某些情况下，即使将目光移到计算机屏幕的某个部分也是游戏识别的有效行为。
In taking action in a game, a player typically provides input via a device, such as by tapping on a keyboard, moving or actuating (for example, clicking) a mouse or another controller, or providing a gesture (for example, tap or swipe) on a control that is sensitive to touch. In some cases, even moving their gaze to a certain part of a computer screen is a valid behavior recognized by the game.
在游戏中计划和采取行动需要玩家有意图。他们有限的认知资源的一部分必须用于他们想做的事情，一部分则用于在游戏环境中实现目标所需的行动。执行一项行动所需的认知资源越少，所需的主动思考就越少，玩家感觉就越自然、越直接。
Planning for and taking an action in a game requires intent on the player’s part. Some of their limited cognitive resources have to be devoted to what they want to do, and some to the actions needed to accomplish their goal in the context of the game. The fewer cognitive resources that are needed to perform an action, the less active thought it requires, and the more natural and immediate it feels to the player.
占用认知资源的通用术语是认知负荷（Sweller 1988）。你在任何时刻思考和关注的事情越多，你的认知负荷就越大。减少玩家需要思考如何玩游戏的时间可以减少他们的认知负荷，让他们专注于他们正在尝试做的事情。这最终会增加参与度和乐趣。（本章后面将对此进行详细介绍。）
The general term for taking up cognitive resources is cognitive load (Sweller 1988). The more things you are thinking about and attending to at any moment, the greater your cognitive load. Reducing how much the player needs to think about how to play the game reduces their cognitive load and allows them to focus instead on what they are trying to do. This ultimately increases engagement and fun. (More on this later in this chapter.)
在人机交互文献中，思考如何做某事所引起的认知负荷被称为发音距离和语义距离的结合（Norman and Draper 1986）。动作越是认知直接（用手指指向比使用鼠标光标更直接，而使用鼠标光标又比输入 (x,y) 坐标更直接），发音距离就越短，完成动作所需的认知资源就越少。
In HCI literature, the cognitive load induced by having to think about how to do something is known as the combination of articulatory and semantic distance (Norman and Draper 1986). The more cognitively direct an action is—pointing with a finger being more direct than using a mouse cursor, which in turn is more direct than typing in (x,y) coordinates—the shorter the articulatory distance and the fewer cognitive resources are needed to complete it.
当游戏为玩家提供充足、及时的反馈并呈现易于解释的动作结果时，动作的语义距离会减小。反馈与玩家的理解和意图越接近，评估它所需的认知资源就越少。在游戏中，看到剑的图标比看到字母w（表示武器）或单词sword的语义距离更短。看到建筑物逐渐建造的动画比评估用户界面中的完成条更容易评估，而后者又比看到诸如“放置了 563/989 块砖”之类的文本显示更容易评估。
The semantic distance of an action is reduced when the game provides ample, timely feedback to the player and presents an easily interpreted result of an action. The more closely the feedback matches the player’s understanding and intent, the fewer cognitive resources are needed to evaluate it. In a game, seeing an icon of a sword has a shorter semantic distance than seeing the letter w (indicating weapon) or the word sword. Seeing an animation of a building gradually being constructed is more easily evaluated than assessing a completion bar in the user interface, which is in turn more easily evaluated than seeing a text display such as “563/989 bricks placed.”
这两个“距离”的组合会增加或减少玩家的认知负荷——他们必须投入理解游戏的心理资源。这些距离越短，玩家需要积极思考游戏的时间就越少，他们剩下的认知资源就越多，可以投入到游戏世界中的有趣情境中。
The combination of these two “distances” adds to or reduces the player’s cognitive load—the mental resources they must devote to understanding the game. The shorter these distances, the less the player has to actively think about the game, and the more cognitive resources they have left over to devote to the playful context within the world of the game.
同样，就游戏规则而言，玩家需要记住的游戏规则越少（规则中的特殊情况越少），他们就越能专注于游戏本身，他们的意图和游戏中的行为之间的语义距离就越短。回想一下第 2 章中关于游戏优雅性的讨论：围棋等游戏的规则非常少，以至于语义距离几乎为零，玩家能够将他们的全部认知投入到游戏空间的心理中。
Similarly in terms of game rules, the less the player has to remember about how to play the game—the fewer special cases there are in the rules—the more they can concentrate on the game itself and the shorter the semantic distance between their intent and their actions in the game. Recall the discussion of elegance in games in Chapter 2: a game such as Go has so few rules that the semantic distance is virtually zero, and the player is able to devote the entirety of their cognition to mentally inhabiting the game-space.
游戏行为和反馈
游戏行为必须向玩家提供有关其状态的反馈。这是玩家了解游戏运作方式并建立游戏心理模型的方式。在现代数字游戏中，这种反馈通常通过图形（图像、文本、动画）和声音传达。这让玩家及时知道游戏状态已发生变化，以便他们可以更新游戏心理模型。
A game’s behavior must provide feedback to the player about its state. This is how the player learns how the game works and builds a mental model of it. In modern digital games, this feedback is most typically communicated via graphics (images, text, animations) and sound. This lets the player know in a timely fashion that the game’s state has changed, so that they can update their mental model of the game.
虽然提供的反馈必须是玩家可以感知的（玩家看不到的颜色或听不到的声音与没有提供任何反馈是一样的），但游戏行为不必提供有关其状态的完整信息。这种不完整性允许隐藏状态（例如，游戏中玩家看不到的卡片），这是许多游戏设计的关键要素。Koster（2012）将其称为游戏的“黑匣子”部分，即玩家在构建游戏心理模型时必须推断的部分，它提供了大量的游戏体验。同样，Ellenor（2014）将内部游戏系统称为“做 X 的机器”，这意味着游戏的核心——其内部系统——是玩家只能通过其行为辨别的机器。
While the feedback provided must be perceptible to the player—a color they cannot see or a sound they cannot hear are the same as providing no feedback at all—the game’s behavior does not have to provide complete information about its state. This incompleteness allows for hidden state (for example, cards the game holds that the player can’t see) that is a key ingredient to many game designs. Koster (2012) referred to this as the “black box” part of the game—the part that must be inferred by the player as they build a mental model of the game and that provides a great deal of the gameplay experience. Similarly, Ellenor (2014) referred to the internal game systems as “a machine that does X,” meaning that the heart of the game—its internal systems—are a machine that the player discerns only through its behaviors.
作为游戏设计师，你必须记住，玩家对游戏的所有了解都来自游戏的行为和对玩家行为的反馈。你可能想假设玩家在玩游戏时已经掌握了一些知识，例如，如何操作鼠标或触摸屏，如何掷骰子。但是，你必须非常小心地做出这些假设，以免让玩家因为缺少游戏无法提供的一些知识而无法玩游戏。
It is important for you as a game designer to remember that all that the player knows about the game comes through the game’s behaviors and feedback in response to the player’s actions. You may want to assume that the player comes to the game with some knowledge—for example, how to operate a mouse or touch screen, how to roll dice. You must be very careful with these assumptions, though, to avoid putting the player in a position of not being able to play the game because of some missing knowledge that the game isn’t going to provide.
当玩家学习游戏时，他们会认为自己已经了解并理解了某些部分；他们的心智模型已经牢固地建立在那里。他们越能利用这些信息将自己的理解扩展到新的领域，他们就越容易学习游戏。此外，他们对某些领域越确定，他们就越有能力预测他们不确定的领域或游戏隐瞒某些状态信息的地方。这正是很多游戏玩法所在，因为玩家会尝试不同的行动并预测结果，并根据这些预测是否准确来建立他们的心智模型。
As a player learns a game, there will be parts the player believes they know and understand well; their mental model is solid there. The more they can use this information to extend their understanding into new areas, the more easily they will learn the game. In addition, the more certain they are of some areas, the more able they will be to make predictions about areas where they are not certain or where the game is withholding some of its state information. This is where a lot of the gameplay resides, as the player tries different actions with predicted outcomes and builds their mental model based on whether those predictions were accurate.
做出有意的选择
重要的是，参与者（无论是人类还是计算机）能够选择自己的行为，而不是随机地做出行为。行为的选择必须基于内部状态和逻辑，或者对于人类玩家而言，基于他们有意识地选择下一步行动的能力。玩家必须了解哪些行动可以实现以下目标：
It is important that an actor, whether human or computer, be able to choose its behaviors rather than fire them off at random. The choice of behavior must be based either on internal state and logic, or, in the case of a human player, on their ability to consciously choose their next action. The player must understand which actions accomplish the following goals:
在当前上下文中有效
Are valid in the current context
拥有做出选择所需的信息
Have the information they need to make a choice
将帮助他们根据预测结果实现目标
Will help them accomplish their goals based on predicted outcome
可以在适当的时间内决定和选择
Can be decided on and selected in an appropriate amount of time
图 4.2玩家为游戏提供输入，游戏为玩家提供反馈，形成一个广义的交互循环。请注意，玩家和游戏都具有内部循环
Figure 4.2 Players provide input to a game, and the games provides feedback to the player, forming a generalized interactive loop. Note that the player and the game both have internal loops as well
交互式游戏循环
Interactive Game Loops
从系统角度来看，玩家和游戏的行为都是其内部状态的结果。根据各自的状态，双方选择要采取的行动，进而影响和扰乱对方的状态。这反过来又会推动新的行为响应。玩家通过其行为向游戏提供输入，从而改变游戏的状态。游戏处理此输入并提供反馈响应，作为玩家的输入，从而改变其内部状态（见图4.2）。这创建了一个往复循环，这是互动的本质。玩家和游戏之间的这种互惠互利通常被称为游戏的核心循环，我们将在本章后面更精确地定义这个术语，并在第 7 章“创建游戏循环”中再次讨论。
In systemic terms, the player’s and the game’s behaviors are the result of their internal state. Based on their state, each selects actions to take, which then affect and perturb the other’s state. This drives new behavioral responses in return. The player provides input to the game via their behaviors, which changes the game’s state. The game processes this and provides feedback responses that are input for the player, changing their internal state (see Figure 4.2). This creates a reciprocating loop that is the essence of interactivity. This give-and-take between the player and the game is often referred to as the game’s core loop, a term we will define more precisely later in this chapter and revisit in Chapter 7, “Creating Game Loops.”
我们在第 2 章中讨论了不同类型的系统循环（例如，强化循环和平衡循环）。所有系统都有交互循环；各部分相互作用并形成循环，从而创建系统。在这种情况下，我们更关注玩家与游戏之间的互动，将其作为整个系统的子系统。我们将研究这些游戏+玩家交互循环在本章中（为了简洁起见，我们简称它们为“交互循环”），然后在第 7 章中再次从游戏的角度更详细地介绍它们。前面对系统循环的讨论（见第 2 章）和这里对交互性的系统性观点为后面更详细的设计讨论奠定了基础。
We discussed different types of systemic loops (for example, reinforcing and balancing loops) in Chapter 2. All systems have interactive loops; the parts interact and form loops that create systems. In this case, we are focused more on interactions between the player and the game as subsystems of an overall system. We will examine these game+player interactive loops in this chapter (for brevity’s sake, we call them simply “interactive loops”), and then see them again in more detail from the game’s side in Chapter 7. The earlier discussion of systemic loops (see Chapter 2) and here of a systemic view of interactivity provide a foundation for more detailed design discussions later on.
这里还有一种值得一提的循环形式：设计师循环（见图4.3）。您第一次看到这种类型的循环是在本书的介绍中，它用一张图片展示了本书的真正内容——您作为游戏设计师与玩家、游戏和您试图创造的体验一起工作。您将在接下来的章节中再次看到对此的更详细描述。
There is one other form of loop that is worth mentioning here: the designer’s loop (see Figure 4.3). You first saw this type of loop in the introduction to this book, and it is a single image that shows what this book is really about—you as a game designer working with the player and the game and the experience you are trying to create. You will see descriptions of this again in more detail in the coming chapters.
到目前为止，您至少已经看到了关于玩家内部心理循环、游戏内部循环以及玩家与游戏之间的交互循环的简要讨论。第四个循环与其他循环不同，它与游戏玩法没有直接关系，但却是游戏设计的核心。在创建游戏时，设计师必须从系统外部与游戏+玩家系统进行交互。游戏设计师以游戏设计理念和原型的形式提供输入，并收到关于哪些可行、哪些不可行等的反馈。这是整个游戏设计过程的简要体现，它本身就是一个基于其各部分循环交互的交互系统。
Thus far you have seen at least brief discussions of the player’s internal mental loop, the game’s loop inside itself, and the interactive loop between the player and game. This fourth loop is unlike the others, in that it is not directly related to the play of the game but is central to its design. In creating a game, the designer must interact with the game+player system from outside that system. The game designer supplies input in the form of game design ideas and prototypes and receives feedback on what works and what doesn’t. This is a brief embodiment of the overall game design process, which is itself an interactive system based on the looping interactions of its parts.
整体体验
The Whole Experience
整个游戏+玩家系统是玩家与游戏之间互动循环的新兴效应。如前所述，Crawford (1984) 将游戏中的互动性描述为对话，Luhmann (1997) 也讨论了这一观点。互动性的“对话”性质是描述整个互动系统的一种更口语化的方式：每个参与者都有自己复杂的内部状态，并且每个人都会根据当前状态选择自己的行为来影响其他人。
The whole of the game+player system arises as an emergent effect of the interactive loops between the player and game. As noted earlier, Crawford (1984) has described interactivity in games as being like a conversation, a view also discussed by Luhmann (1997). The “conversational” nature of interactivity is a more colloquial way of describing the whole of the interactive system: each participant has their own complex internal state, and each affects the others with their behaviors selected based on their current state.
这一整体就是玩家体验到的游戏，也是游戏意义产生的地方。游戏对玩家的意义——游戏的主题、教训、道德，以及游戏结束后玩家长久记忆的一切——都来自于玩家与游戏的所有互动。这种意义是互动系统的突发效应，并不只存在于玩家或游戏中。正如 Newhagen (2004) 所说，“当 [子系统] 的输出相互作用时，意义就产生了，而更高阶的符号在下一层次上整体出现”(第 399 页)。正是这些符号构成了玩家心理模型的基础，是游戏互动的结果。
This whole is the game as experienced by the player and is where the meaning of the game arises. Whatever the game means to the player—its theme, lessons, morals, and whatever stays with the player long after the game is done—comes from the totality of all the player’s interactions with it. This meaning is an emergent effect of the interactive system, not resident in just the player or the game alone. As Newhagen (2004) put it, “Meaning is generated when the outputs from [subsystems] interact, and higher order symbols holistically emerge at the next level” (p. 399). It is those symbols that form the basis of the player’s mental model as the result of the interactions in the game.
将互动性理解为包含玩家和游戏之间相互作用的系统，有助于我们更好地理解参与和乐趣的心理体验。
Understanding interactivity as a system that includes the interplay between the player and the game sets us up for a greater understanding of the psychological experiences of engagement and fun.
心智模型、唤醒和参与
Mental Models, Arousal, and Engagement
在系统性地定义了互动性之后，我们现在开始更详细地研究互动循环中的玩家方面。这需要仔细观察玩游戏的人如何利用各种形式的互动性来建立对游戏的理解（心理模型）。神经、感知、认知、情感和文化等各种互动效果共同创造了一种分层的动态游戏体验和心理模型。在研究这些方面时，我们将发现，这种充满乐趣的参与体验的全部内容就是我们以多种不同形式所称的“乐趣”。
Having defined interactivity in systemic terms, we now turn to study the player’s side of the interactive loop in more detail. This involves a close look at how someone playing a game builds understanding—a mental model—of the game using various forms of interactivity. A wide range of neurological, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and cultural interactive effects all come together to create a layered dynamic experience and psychological model of the game being played. In studying these, we will see that the totality of this experience of playful engagement is what we know in many different forms as “fun.”
玩家对游戏的心理模型是游戏内部模型的反映，该模型由游戏设计师定义并体现在游戏中（如第 3 章所述，并在第 6 章“设计整体体验”至第 8 章“定义游戏部分”中详细说明）。玩家必须通过与游戏世界互动来了解游戏世界。通过玩游戏，玩家可以学习重要的游戏概念。玩家认为这些概念是值得的，可以实现的，玩家会根据自己的行为来测试他们的理解。如果游戏提供的反馈是积极的（玩家“做对了某件事”），他们会感到有成就感，这些概念就会添加到他们的心理模型中。玩家现在在游戏中比以前知道得更多，能力也更强。否则，他们可能会感到沮丧，不得不重新考虑并纠正他们的模型。因此，玩家的心理模型源自他们的注意力、计划、目标和情感的组合，这些都是游戏+玩家系统创建的一部分。如第 3 章所述，同样的循环与玩家制定他们认为有意义的目标有关，从而使他们在游戏中的行为充满个人意义。
The player’s mental model of a game is their reflection of the game’s internal model, which is defined by game designers and embodied in the game (as described in Chapter 3 and detailed in Chapters 6, “Designing the Whole Experience,” through 8, “Defining Game Parts”). The player has to get to know the game’s world by interacting with it. By playing the game, the player learns important game concepts. These are perceived as worthwhile and attainable by the player, who tests their understanding based on their actions. If the feedback provided by the game is positive (the player “did something right”), they feel a sense of accomplishment, and those concepts are added to their mental model. The player now knows more and has greater abilities in the game than before. Otherwise, they may feel set back, have to reconsider, and correct their model. The player’s mental model thus arises out of a combination of their attention, plans, goals, and emotions that are all part of the creation of the game+player system. As noted in Chapter 3, this same cycle is related to the player making what they believe to be meaningful goals and thus to having their actions in the game imbued with a sense of personal meaning.
在玩游戏时，玩家会多次循环他们的主要交互循环。如果他们无法构建与游戏设计师创造的游戏相匹配的连贯游戏模型，或者其中涉及的交互单调乏味或令人难以忍受，他们就会停止玩游戏。（在心理学术语中，这被称为行为消退；在游戏中，这通常被称为倦怠。）因此，游戏设计师的工作是构建游戏以吸引玩家的注意力，然后随着时间的推移保持他们对游戏的兴趣。
While playing a game, the player cycles through their primary interaction loops many times. If in so doing they are unable to construct a coherent model of the game that matches what the game designer has created, or if the interactions involved in doing so are tedious, boring, or overwhelming, they will stop playing the game. (In psychological terms, this is known as behavior extinction; in games, it’s often referred to as burnout.) As such, it is the game designer’s job to build the game to attract the player’s attention and then hold their interest in it over time.
玩家的心理模型包含他们对游戏作为多层次系统的理解：游戏系统和子系统中的部分、循环和整体。这包括任何公开的系统，例如经济、生态或战斗系统，以及导航游戏空间的能力，无论是地理空间还是逻辑空间。例如，如果《魔兽世界》中的玩家知道从灰谷到暴风城的最佳路线，那么他们就对这个游戏世界有一个有效的心理模型（可能和他们家乡的心理模型一样好）。同样，如果玩《巫师 3》的人知道如何导航游戏中高度详细且经常令人困惑的技能树（以及为什么你会选择肌肉记忆技能而不是闪电反射），那么他们就成功地建立了该系统的心理模型。心理模型是玩家对游戏世界的知识以及他们使用系统和预测他们在游戏中的行为的影响的能力的总和。它允许玩家形成有效的意图，预测他们在游戏中的行为的影响，避免或克服游戏可能遇到的障碍，并最终在游戏环境中实现他们想要的目标。
Contained in the player’s mental model is their understanding of a game as a multilevel system: the parts, loops, and whole in the game’s systems and subsystems. This includes any overt systems, such as economic, ecological, or combat systems, and also the ability to navigate the game’s spaces, whether geographical or logical. For example, if a player in World of Warcraft knows the best way to get from Ashenvale to Stormwind, they have an effective mental model of this game’s world (potentially as good as their mental model of their home town). Similarly, if someone playing The Witcher 3 knows how to navigate the game’s highly detailed and often confusing skill tree (and why, for example, you would choose the Muscle Memory skill over, say, Lightning Reflexes), then they have been successful in building a mental model of that system. The mental model is the sum of the player’s knowledge of the game world, along with their ability to use its systems and anticipate the effects of their actions in the game. It allows the player to form valid intentions, predict the effects of their actions in the game, avoid or overcome obstacles the game may throw in their way, and ultimately achieve their desired goals within the context of the game.
布什内尔定律是雅达利创始人诺兰·布什内尔提出的格言，它指出游戏应该“易于学习，难以精通”（Bogost 2009）。从心智模型的角度来看，这意味着玩家应该能够轻松构建和验证模型，避免出现可能让玩家犯错的歧义和例外情况。游戏必须以新玩家清晰熟悉的方式呈现其基本信息和互动，并鼓励他们进一步探索和学习更多内容，从而增加他们对游戏的了解和模型。
Bushnell’s Law, an aphorism attributed to Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, said that a game should be “easy to learn and difficult to master” (Bogost 2009). In terms of the mental model, this means it should be easy for the player to construct and validate a model, being free of ambiguities and exceptions that may trip up the player. The game must present its basic information and interactions in ways that are clear and familiar to a new player and in ways that encourage them to explore further and learn more, adding to their knowledge and model of the game.
精心设计的游戏会为玩家提供充足的心理探索空间：玩家可能会反复玩游戏，经常重新审视自己的心理模型，但不会觉得自己很快就掌握了游戏，甚至根本就没掌握。一旦玩家了解了游戏的所有内容，如果这些部分之间的行为和互动也得到了充分探索，那么就没有什么可学的了，也没有任何新的体验，因此游戏就失去了吸引玩家的能力。再一次，围棋游戏提供了一个符合布什内尔定律的典型游戏例子：围棋规则很少，很容易学。然而，它可能需要一生的时间才能掌握，因为即使是专注的玩家也会在不断扩展对系统深度的理解的同时，重新评估和重组心理模型的各个部分。
A game that is well designed rewards a player with an ample mental space to explore that emerges from the game: the player may play the game over and over, revisiting their mental model often, and yet not feel that they have mastered the game quickly, if at all. Once the player has seen all the game’s content, if the behaviors and interactions between those parts are also fully explored, then there is nothing left to learn, and there are no new experiences to be had, so the game loses its ability to engage the player. Once again, the game of Go provides an archetypal example of a game that fulfils Bushnell’s Law: the game has only a few rules and is easy to learn. It may, however, take a lifetime to master, as even dedicated players reevaluate and reassemble parts of their mental model as they continually expand their understanding of its systemic depth.
交互循环：构建玩家的心智模型
Interactive Loops: Building the Player’s Mental Model
图 4.4展示了图 4.2中交互循环的更详细版本中玩家与游戏之间循环的高级特征。此循环的开始部分涉及玩家形成开始游戏的意图，然后采取行动。游戏以提供一些初始形式的吸引人的反馈和行动号召来敦促玩家（从启动画面和介绍开始）开始。行动号召，有时称为钩子，促使玩家开始或继续玩游戏。这与可供性相似但不完全相同，可供性是来自用户界面设计的术语。可供性是关于某物如何操作的视觉或其他可感知的线索。正如 Norman (1988) 所写，“盘子是用来推的。旋钮是用来转动的。插槽是用来插入东西的。球是用来投掷或弹跳的。当利用可供性时，用户只需看一眼就知道该做什么：不需要图片、标签或说明。”行动号召必须包含可供性，以便玩家如何执行下一个必要行动真正显而易见。此外，它还必须为玩家提供执行下一个行动的动机。行动号召不仅仅是一个带有把手的杯子，上面写着“我可以拿起来”，而是一个装满美味热可可的漂亮杯子，让你想在寒冷的日子里拿起它并握在手中。游戏必须从一开始就吸引玩家，然后保持他们的注意力和参与度，正如本章所讨论的那样。
Figure 4.4 shows the high-level features of what happens in the loop between the player and the game in a more detailed version of the interactive loop shown in Figure 4.2. The very beginning of this loop involves the player forming the intent to start the game and then acting to do so. The game begins by offering some initial form of attractive feedback and a call to action to urge the player on (starting with the splash screen and introduction). The call to action, sometimes called a hook, impels the player to start or continue playing the game. This is similar to but not quite the same an affordance, a term that comes from user interface design. An affordance is a visual or otherwise perceivable clue about how something operates. As Norman (1988) wrote, “Plates are for pushing. Knobs are for turning. Slots are for inserting things into. Balls are for throwing or bouncing. When affordances are taken advantage of, the user knows what to do just by looking: no picture, label, or instruction needed.” The call to action must include affordances so that how the player is to perform the next necessary action is truly obvious. In addition, it must also provide the player with some motivation to perform the next action. The call to action is metaphorically not merely a cup with a handle that says “I can be picked up” but is an attractive mug filled with tasty warm cocoa that makes you want to pick it up and cradle it in your hands on a cold day. The game must from the start draw the player in and then keep their attention and engagement, as discussed in this chapter.
在响应行动号召以开始交互循环时，玩家会从游戏中获取视觉、听觉和符号信息，将其添加到（或稍后调整）他们的心智模型中，并使用获得的新信息来监控现有目标并创建新目标在游戏环境中。这些目标会导致玩家在游戏中采取动作，从而改变游戏的状态（同时游戏也会根据其设计和内部模型独立改变其状态）。
In responding to the call to action to begin the interactive loop, the player takes in visual, auditory, and symbolic information from the game, adds it to (or later adjusts) their mental model, and uses the new information gained to monitor existing goals and create new ones within the context of the game. These goals result in actions carried out by the player in the game, which change the game’s state (along with the game independently changing its state based on its design and internal model).
然后，游戏会向玩家提供新的反馈，提供更多信息或能力（他们可以在游戏中做的更多事情）。这样一来，游戏就会通过提供更多机会和行动号召来鼓励玩家继续构建他们的心智模型。如果这个过程能保持玩家的兴趣，他们就会随着对游戏（通常是他们在游戏中的能力）的理解的增加而逐渐建立起他们对游戏的心智模型。
The game then provides new feedback to the player that gives more information or abilities (more things that they can do in the game). In so doing, the game encourages the player to continue building their mental model by keeping the loop going with more opportunities and calls to action. If this process retains the player’s interest, they gradually build up their mental model of the game as their understanding of it (and typically their abilities in it) increases.
吸引并留住玩家注意力的过程是让玩家对游戏保持兴趣和投入的关键。为了更全面地理解这一点，我们必须首先研究唤醒和注意力的机制以及几种不同类型的心理投入。这将引导我们讨论“心流”的体验，以及所有这些因素如何有助于创造有趣的游戏体验。
This process of getting and keeping the player’s attention is what keeps the player interested in and engaged with the game. To understand this more fully, we must first look at the mechanisms of arousal and attention and several different kinds of psychological engagement. This will then lead us to a discussion of the experience of “flow” and how all these factors contribute to the playful experience of fun.
唤醒和注意力
Arousal and Attention
要想玩游戏，玩家必须感兴趣并且（从心理学角度来说）兴奋——也就是说，保持警惕并随时准备参与。如果玩家不感兴趣或感到无聊，或者不知所措或焦虑，他们就不愿意或无法投入参与游戏所需的精力。
For a game to be played, the player must be interested and (in psychological terms) aroused—that is, alert and watchful and ready to participate. If the player is disinterested or bored, or on the other hand overwhelmed or anxious, they won’t be willing or able to devote the energy needed to participate in and engage with the game.
例如，如果有人开始玩游戏，但看不到任何可用的控件或无法理解所显示的内容，他们很快就会感到无聊并停止玩游戏。回想一下，没有人必须玩游戏，游戏设计师的责任是让游戏看起来足够有趣，以吸引和留住玩家的注意力。同样，如果游戏中发生太多事情（特别是视觉上），玩家无法弄清楚他们应该做什么，甚至不知道从哪里开始，那么他们的注意力就会被淹没，他们就会停止玩游戏。
For example, if someone begins to play a game but can’t see any usable controls or make sense of what’s being displayed, they will soon become bored and stop playing. Recall that no one has to play a game, and it is the game designer’s responsibility to make the game appear interesting enough to attract and hold the player’s attention. In the same way, if there is so much going on in the game (visually in particular) that the player can’t figure out what they should be doing or even where to start, then their attention will become overwhelmed, and they will stop playing.
唤醒和表现
心理唤醒与表现之间的关系最早由心理学早期的耶基斯和多德森 (1908) 探索。游戏设计师必须了解现在所谓的“耶基斯-多德森定律”。耶基斯和多德森发现，随着个人唤醒程度的提高，他们在任务上的表现也会提高——直到一定程度。如果个人的唤醒程度太低，他们会感到无聊，表现不佳。但超过某个水平，随着个人唤醒程度的提高（作为对额外刺激或压力的反应），他们会变得越来越焦虑，无法专注于手头的任务，他们的表现也会下降。
The relationship between psychological arousal and performance was first explored in the early days of psychology by Yerkes and Dodson (1908). It is important for game designers to understand what is now known as the “Yerkes-Dodson Law.” Yerkes and Dodson discovered that as an individual’s arousal increases, their performance on a task also increases—up to a point. If the individual’s arousal is too low, they are bored and doesn’t perform well. But above some level, as the individual’s arousal increases (as a reaction to additional stimuli or stress), they become increasingly anxious and unable to focus on tasks at hand, and their performance decreases.
图 4.5耶基斯-多德森曲线的理想化版本。在低唤醒水平下，绩效较差。随着唤醒水平的提高，绩效会提高到某个点，超过该点后，绩效又会下降
Figure 4.5 An idealized version of the Yerkes-Dodson curve. At low levels of arousal, performance is poor. As arousal increases, performance improves up to some point, beyond which it degrades again
这种现象有多种变体。例如，即使在高度兴奋的情况下，执行简单任务时的表现也不会下降；而执行更复杂的任务时，我们每个人都会更快达到最佳状态。同样，你的技能越高或练习任务越多，你就能保持更高的兴奋水平而不会失去表现。这就是所谓的“专家效应”，例如，一个技术娴熟的汽车司机、飞行员、外科医生或程序员可以在一个缺乏经验的人完全惊慌失措、无法完成任务的情况下保持冷静并表现出色。
There are variations on this. For example, performance tends not to drop off on simple tasks even at high levels of arousal; with more complex tasks, we each reach our optimum point sooner. Likewise, the more skilled you are or the more you have practiced a task, the higher levels of arousal you can maintain without losing performance. This is the so-called “expert effect,” where, for example, a highly skilled car driver, airplane pilot, surgeon, or programmer can stay calm and perform under circumstances that would have a less-practiced individual completely panicked and unable to perform at all.
图 4.5显示了耶基斯-多德森曲线的理想版本。如您所见，如果一个人不够警觉，他们就不会专注于任务，也不会表现良好。在曲线的顶部或刚过顶部时，玩家表现良好，可能会感到轻微但不令人不快的压力。这是学习发生的地方，当玩家在最佳表现曲线的边缘上冲浪时，技能会提高。但是，如果他们在曲线的右侧下滑，则说明有太多事情要做，感知输入或认知负荷过多。当这种情况发生时，个人的唤醒程度过高，他们会感到压力、焦虑，最终感到恐慌，同时表现也会下降。
An idealized version of the Yerkes-Dodson curve is shown in Figure 4.5. As you can see, if an individual is not sufficiently alert, they will not be attentive to a task and will not perform well. At or just past the top of the curve, the player is performing well and may be feeling mildly but not unpleasantly stressed. This is where learning takes place and skill improves as the player surfs the edge of the curve of optimal performance. However, if they slip down the right side of the curve, there is too much going on and too much perceptual input or cognitive load. When this happens, the individual’s arousal is too high, and they experience stress, anxiety, and eventually panic, with an accompanying reduction in performance.
在这条曲线的中间某个位置，个体对手头的任务保持警觉和专注，能够忽视或忽略无关事件和输入，并且表现良好（并且通常意识到自己表现良好），那么可以说他们在心理上处于投入状态。
Somewhere in the middle of this curve, where the individual is alert and attentive to the tasks at hand, able to discount or ignore extraneous events and inputs, and performing well (and generally aware they are performing well), then they can be said to be psychologically engaged.
订婚
Engagement
心理参与是互动性和游戏性的重要组成部分；在很多方面，这是我们在设计游戏时寻求提供给玩家的东西。这个词通常用于描述各种体验（“玩家参与度”通常是衡量游戏商业成功的指标），但通常没有任何明确的定义。与游戏设计中提到的其他概念以及本文讨论的概念一样，将这个概念与其心理根源联系起来将有助于您更清楚地理解这个术语的实际含义以及如何有效地使用它。
Psychological engagement is an important component of interactivity and gameplay; in many ways, it is what we are seeking to provide the player when we design games. This word is commonly used in describing various experiences (“player engagement” is often a measure of commercial success in games) but usually without any clear definition. As with other concepts referred to in game design and discussed here, linking this concept to its psychological roots will help you gain a clearer understanding of what the term actually means and how to use it effectively.
参与度是对个人内部状态以及他们对世界和周围其他人的反应的描述（Gambetti 和 Graffigna 2010）。Schaufeli 等人（2002 年）将心理参与度描述为一种持续的认知和情感状态，其特点是“活力、奉献和专注”的结合，其中
Engagement is a description of an individual’s internal state and how they respond to the world and others around them (Gambetti and Graffigna 2010). Schaufeli et al. (2002) characterized psychological engagement as an ongoing cognitive and emotional state typified by a combination of “vigor, dedication, and absorption,” where
活力是指工作时精力充沛、精神坚韧，愿意为工作付出努力，即使遇到困难也能坚持不懈。奉献是指对工作意义感、热情、灵感、自豪感和挑战感。专注是指全神贯注、全身心投入工作，时间过得很快，很难从工作中抽身。（第 74-75 页）
vigor is characterized by high levels of energy and mental resilience while working, the willingness to invest effort in one’s work, and persistence even in the face of difficulties. Dedication is characterized by a sense of significance, enthusiasm, inspiration, pride, and challenge [and] absorption is characterized by being fully concentrated and deeply engrossed in one’s work, whereby time passes quickly and one has difficulties with detaching oneself from work. (pp. 74–75)
这些正是我们在描述令人满意的游戏体验的玩家身上通常看到的特质。随着玩家专注于游戏并与之互动，他们的心理模型会不断成长，并不断与游戏的内部模型相匹配。因此，他们能够成功地与游戏互动：他们的目标（无论是游戏提供的还是他们自己创造的）使他们能够尝试假设，并据此采取行动并获得令人满意的反馈，然后循环往复。
These are exactly the qualities that we typically see in players who describe a satisfying experience with a game. As the player focuses on and interacts with the game, their mental model grows and continues to match the game’s internal model. As a result, they are able to interact successfully with it: their goals (either provided by the game or created by them) enable them to try out hypotheses on which they act and receive satisfying feedback, and the cycle continues.
当某人积极参与此类活动时（这种活动令人愉悦、自愿、独立且无关紧要（再次指“魔法圈”）），我们通常会说他们“玩得很开心”。我们通常将此类活动称为“玩耍”或“游戏”。从游戏设计师（和玩家！）的角度来看，能够带来如此积极体验的游戏是成功的。我们将在本章的其余部分更详细地探讨参与度和乐趣。
When someone is actively engaged by such an activity—one that is pleasurable, voluntary, separate, and nonconsequential (referring again to the “magic circle”)—then we often say they are “having fun.” We typically call such activities “play” or “games.” From the point of view of the game designer (and player!), a game that enables such a positive experience is a success. We will explore engagement and fun in greater detail in the remainder of this chapter.
参与并保持参与
鉴于游戏中参与度的重要性，我们如何从实际角度定义参与度体验，互动性在其中扮演什么角色，以及如何通过这些定义来定义“乐趣”，以帮助我们创造更好的游戏？
Given the importance of engagement in games, how do we define in practical terms the experience of engagement, where does interactivity fit in, and how do these lead to something we can define as “fun” in a way that helps us create better games?
我们首先可以从神经化学的角度，从心理动机的角度来看待参与度，然后再从其他经验层面来看待：行动/反馈、认知、社交、情感和文化。我们将依次研究这些方面，建立参与度、互动性和趣味性的模型。
We can look at engagement first from a neurochemical point of view, in terms of psychological motivations, and then from additional layers of experience: action/feedback, cognitive, social, emotional, and cultural. We will look at each of these in turn, building up the model of engagement, interactivity, and fun.
神经化学参与
归根结底，当我们创造游戏体验时，我们试图创造人类大脑会觉得有吸引力和相关的体验，这将吸引玩家的注意力，并提供一种愉悦或积极的感觉。虽然我们不应该试图将参与度或乐趣与大脑中晃动的化学物质紧密联系起来，但了解这些化学物质如何促进兴奋也有助于我们了解玩家如何以及为何被我们的游戏吸引并继续玩。
Ultimately when we create game experiences, we are attempting to create experiences the human brain will find attractive and relevant, that will hold the player’s attention, and that will provide a sense of pleasure or positivity. While we should not try to pin engagement or fun too closely to chemicals sloshing around in our brains, understanding how these contribute to arousal helps us also understand how and why players become attracted to and continue to play our games.
大脑告诉我们某个动作或情况值得重复的主要方式之一是让我们感觉良好（一种主观但常见的体验）。当大脑释放某些化学物质时，尤其会发生这种情况。虽然我们的皮质回路中也有很多事情发生，但这些化学物质在大脑中充当广播信号，基本上是说“现在发生的一切都是好的——多做点这样的事！”然而，有不止一种情况值得发出广泛的“多做点这样的事！”信号，因此我们有多种主要的奖励神经化学物质。毫不奇怪，事实证明这些化学物质与有趣、引人入胜的体验非常吻合。以下是一些已被确定与不同类型的引人入胜体验相关的主要神经化学物质：
One of the primary ways our brains tell us that an action or a situation is worth repeating is by helping us feel good (a subjective but common experience). This happens in particular when certain chemicals are released in our brains. While there is a lot going on in our cortical circuitry as well, these chemicals serve as broadcast signals in the brain that say, basically, “whatever is going on right now is good—do more of that!” However, there is more than one kind of situation that merits a broad “do more of that!” signal, and so we have multiple primary reward neurochemicals. Not surprisingly, it turns out that these map well to fun, engaging experiences. Here are some of the main neurochemicals that have been identified as being associated with different kinds of engaging experiences:
多巴胺：多巴胺通常被称为“奖励化学物质”，它有助于提高警觉性和兴奋感，帮助您集中注意力并积极采取行动。特别是，多巴胺在新奇（但不太不寻常）、需要探索或代表已实现目标的情况下，会给我们带来积极的感觉。如果您曾经看到游戏中分数上升而感到高兴，那就是多巴胺在起作用。同样值得注意的是，如果预期有奖励而未获得，则释放的多巴胺量会减少，导致该行为或情况在未来被视为不那么积极和令人愉悦（Nieoullon 2002）。这突出了与多巴胺相关的参与度的一个重要方面，即习惯化：我们更看重新的奖励，而不是现有的、预期的奖励。随着我们逐渐习惯现有情况，它们变得不那么新奇和不那么有回报，我们对它们的投入也变得不那么积极，最终在寻求新奖励时变得无聊。为玩家提供新的奖励和保持参与度的新方法通常是游戏设计的重要组成部分。
Dopamine: Often called “the reward chemical,” dopamine contributes to alertness and arousal, helping you to be attentive and motivated to act. In particular, dopamine gives us a positive feeling in situations that are novel (but not too unusual), that require exploration, or that represent a goal that has been reached. If you have ever felt pleasure just by seeing points going up in a game, that’s dopamine at work. Notable too is that if a reward is expected and not attained, the amount of dopamine released is reduced, causing the behavior or situation to be viewed as less positive and pleasurable in the future (Nieoullon 2002). This highlights an important aspect of dopamine-related engagement, habituation: we value new rewards more than we value existing, expected ones. As we gradually get used to existing situations, they become less novel and less rewarding, and we become less vigorous in our dedication to them, ultimately becoming bored as we seek new rewards. Providing players with new rewards and new ways to remain engaged is often a large part of game design.
血清素：血清素是多巴胺的平衡伙伴。多巴胺负责保持警觉、寻求新奇并期待获得奖励，而血清素则负责感到安全并有成就感。多巴胺会导致冲动并寻求新事物，而血清素则促使您继续努力完成已知的任务。当您获得安全感（心理学术语为“避免伤害”）、确保或获得社会地位、完成成就或获得技能时，您从中获得的积极感受都是由于大脑中血清素的释放（Raleigh 等人，1991 年）。玩家升级时感受到的满足感部分归因于血清素。值得注意的是，许多游戏都以特定的视觉和声音效果来庆祝此类成就（“叮！”长期以来一直被认为是许多 MMO 中某人刚刚升级的听觉提示）。将特定的噪音或视觉效果与升级的感觉联系起来的条件作用不容小觑。
Serotonin: Serotonin is dopamine’s balancing partner. Whereas dopamine is about being alert, seeking novelty, and expecting of reward, serotonin is about feeling secure and having a sense of accomplishment. Whereas dopamine leads to impulsiveness and looking for something new, serotonin urges you to keep plugging along with what you already know. The positive feelings you get from situations in which you gain a feeling of security (in psychological terms, “harm avoidance”), assure or gain social status, complete an achievement, or gain a skill are all due to the release of serotonin in your brain (Raleigh et al. 1991). The sense of satisfaction a player feels when leveling up is in part due to serotonin. It’s notable also that many games celebrate such accomplishments with specific visual and sound effects (“Ding!” has long been known as the auditory cue that someone has just leveled up in many MMOs). The conditioning effect of associating a particular noise or visual effect with the feeling of leveling up should not be underestimated.
催产素和加压素：这两种神经化学物质对于社会联系和支持至关重要。它们具有多种功能，从增强性唤起到鼓励学习，但它们在形成社会联系方面尤其重要，从朋友/陌生人的反应到坠入爱河（Olff 等人 2013 年，Walum 等人 2008 年）。催产素通常被称为“拥抱激素”，因为它会在性或其他亲密接触中释放，从而建立更牢固的社会联系。2加压素发挥着类似的功能，尤其是在男性中。这两种激素都有助于我们因参与社会活动而感到高兴——成为夫妻、家庭、团队或社区的一员。
Oxytocin and vasopressin: These two neurochemicals are important in social bonding and support. They have a number of functions, ranging from enhancing sexual arousal to encouraging learning, but they are particularly important in forming social bonds ranging from friend/stranger reactions to falling in love (Olff et al. 2013, Walum et al. 2008). Oxytocin is often called the “cuddle hormone” because of its release in sexual or other intimate encounters that results in stronger social bonds.2 Vasopressin performs similar functions, particularly in men. Each of these help us feel good for being socially engaged—being part of a couple, family, team, or community.
去甲肾上腺素和内啡肽：这两种神经化学物质与注意力、精力和参与度有关。它们通常被称为“压力荷尔蒙”。去甲肾上腺素（在英国通常称为去甲肾上腺素）有助于调节唤醒，尤其是在短期警觉中，让大脑做好快速应对可能需要战斗或逃跑反应的刺激的准备。在这种情况下，它还有助于快速学习。内啡肽的作用不同，它可以减轻疼痛感，让我们感觉精力充沛，尤其是在剧烈的体力活动之后。这些神经化学物质与参与度的直接关系不如其他化学物质，尤其是在通常久坐不动的游戏中。然而，它们似乎有助于保持警觉和集中注意力，尤其是在紧张的情况下。
Norepinephrine and endorphins: These two neurochemicals relate to concentration, attention, energy, and engagement. They are often referred to as “stress hormones.” Norepinephrine (typically called noradrenaline in the UK) helps regulate arousal, especially in short-term vigilance, preparing the brain to quickly react to stimuli that may require a fight-or-flight response. It also helps with very fast learning in such situations. Endorphins act differently, muting feelings of pain and giving us the feeling of having additional energy, especially after strenuous physical activity. These neurochemicals are less directly related to engagement than the others, particularly in the case of generally sedentary games. They appear, however, to aid in alertness and concentration of attention, especially in stressful situations.
这种神经化学观点为了解参与的不同方面提供了一个重要的窗口。如前所述，当我们全身心投入某件事并投入大量时间和精力时，我们就会参与其中。它成为我们的焦点，而其他事情往往会从我们的注意力中消失。基于我们的神经化学，这种参与感的内在主观感受是，我们体验到以下感觉：
This neurochemical view provides an important window into the different aspects of engagement. As noted earlier, we are engaged with something when we have become dedicated to and absorbed in it and vigorously spend time and energy on it. It becomes our focus, and other things tend to drop out of our attention. The internal, subjective feeling of this sense of engagement, based on our neurochemistry, is that we experience feeling the following ways:
警觉、寻求新奇或期待奖励
Alert, seeking novelty or expecting a reward
获得奖励或在社会阶层中确立自己的地位
Secure in a reward or established in our place in a social hierarchy
通过共享的社会纽带与他人建立联系
Connected to others via shared social bonds
面对压力保持警惕
Vigilant in the face of stress
我们在努力的情况下成功地“坚持下去”
That we are successfully “pushing through” in the presence of exertion
这些感觉并不是同时或一直存在的。有效地控制这些感觉是保持对活动的参与度的一部分。这就是为什么，例如，游戏中的困难关卡或书中或电影中的高潮序列之后会有一个更安静、更轻松的时刻，在这个时刻玩家或观众可以喘口气——也就是降低警惕性，让身心都得到休息，并巩固成就感和社会联系感。
Not all of these are felt at the same time or all the time. Manipulating these feelings effectively is part of maintaining engagement in an activity. This is why, for example, a difficult level in a game or a climactic sequence in a book or movie is followed by a quieter, easier moment where the player or viewer can catch their breath—that is, reduce their vigilance, rest mentally and physically, and consolidate feelings of accomplishment and social connection.
当这种参与发生在一个有结果的（例如，与工作相关的）环境中时，它通常被认为是一种令人满足的活动。当它发生在一个独立的、自愿的、不重要的空间中（例如在游戏的“魔法圈”内），它通常被认为是有趣的。
When such engagement takes place within a consequential (for example, work-related) context, it is often perceived as a fulfilling activity. When it takes place in a separate, voluntary, nonconsequential space (such as within the “magic circle” of a game), it is often perceived as fun.
超越大脑
当然，我们不仅仅是大脑中的化学物质，我们的注意力和整体唤醒也是如此。随着我们脱离纯粹的化学和神经层面的互动，我们可以大致将后续类型的参与归类为心理性而非生理性。这些参与越来越受到个人的控制——从心理学角度来说，从反射性注意力转变为执行性注意力，再转变为反思性注意力——此外，它们在越来越长的时间尺度上起作用。
We are more than our brain chemicals, of course, and our attention and overall arousal are as well. As we move from the purely chemical and neural levels of interaction, we can loosely classify subsequent types of engagement as being increasingly psychological rather than physiological. These are under increasing individual control—in psychological terms, moving from reflexive to executive to reflective attention—and in addition operate on longer and longer time scales.
游戏设计师必须了解玩家心理的各个方面，包括玩家的动机。第 6 章将更详细地讨论不同的动机，因为这是选择游戏目标受众时的主要考虑因素。无论玩家的动机组合如何，此处描述的不同形式的交互性都适用。
It is important for a game designer to be aware of aspects of player psychology, including the player’s motivations. Different motivations are discussed in more detail in Chapter 6, as this is a major consideration when choosing the target audience for a game. Regardless of the mix of motivations your players have, the different forms of interactivity described here apply.
请注意，此处概述的参与和互动类型与第 3 章中讨论的玩家目标类型相对应。每种类型的交互循环都为玩家提供了形成意图的机会，无论是对感觉的即时身体反应，还是在未来某个时候实现的长期目标。
Note that the types of engagement and interactivity outlined here correspond to the types of player goals discussed in Chapter 3. Each type of interactive loop provides the player an opportunity to form an intention, whether an instant in-the-moment physical response to a sensation or a long-term goal with fruition sometime in the future.
互动循环
Interactive Loops
我们已经提到了交互循环的概念——在这里我们再次特别提到玩家和游戏之间的交互循环。这些循环从非常快并且使用很少的认知（更少的反思）资源到在更长的时间尺度上发生并且更具反思性。图 4.6中所示的每个交互循环都是图 4.4中所示的同一类型的循环。每个循环都在不同的时间尺度上运行并且需要不同的内部资源。在每种类型的循环中，玩家都会产生意图，然后执行操作，从而导致游戏状态发生变化并且游戏提供反馈，从而设置循环的下一次迭代。这些类型的交互循环之间的唯一区别在于所需的心理（或计算）资源数量、它们发生的时间尺度以及玩家因此获得的体验。还要注意，这些循环通常同时发生：许多快速动作/反馈循环发生在战略长期认知循环中，其中一些循环可能发生在社交或情感交互循环中。在本章后面关于组合交互循环的时间尺度的讨论中，您将再次看到这一点。
The concept of interactive loops has already been mentioned—and here we are again referring specifically to the loops of interaction between a player and a game. These loops go from very fast and using few cognitive (much less reflective) resources to taking place on much longer time scales and being far more reflective. Each of the interactive loops shown in Figure 4.6 is the same type of loop shown in Figure 4.4. Each operates on a different time scale and requires different internal resources. In each kind of loop, the player creates an intention and then carries out an action, causing the game state to change and the game to provide feedback, setting up the next iteration of the loop. The only differences between these kinds of interaction loops are the amount of mental (or computing) resources required, the time scale on which they take place, and the experience that the player has as a result. Note also that these loops are often happening at the same time: many fast action/feedback loops occur within a strategic long-term cognitive loop, and several of them may happen during a social or emotional interactive loop. You will see this point again later in this chapter, in our discussion of the time scale of combined interaction loops.
图 4.6不同类型交互式循环的示意图。时间范围从亚秒到数周或更长。较长的循环通常也需要更多的脑力或游戏（计算）资源。这些循环通常同时发生，相互嵌套，如文中所述
Figure 4.6 Diagrammatic view of different types of interactive loops. Time scales range from subsecond to weeks or longer. Longer loops also typically require more mental or game (computing) resources. These loops often occur at the same time, nested one within another, as described in the text
以下类型的交互循环将在本文中详细讨论并在本书的其余部分中使用，按从最快/认知能力最差到最慢/反思能力最强的顺序列出：
The following kinds of interactive loops are discussed in detail here and used throughout the rest of the book, listed here from fastest/least cognitive to slowest/most reflective:
行动/反馈
Action/feedback
短期认知
Short-term cognitive
长期认知
Long-term cognitive
社会的
Social
情感
Emotional
文化
Cultural
动作/反馈互动
Action/Feedback Interactivity
就心理互动而言，最快且在许多方面最基本的形式主要依赖于玩家对游戏的身体动作以及游戏对玩家的感官反馈，中间几乎没有思考的机会。这种级别的互动游戏——从动作到反馈的循环——发生得很快，大约不到一秒，最多两三秒。
In terms of psychological interactivity, the fastest and in many ways most basic form relies primarily on physical action from the player to the game and sensory-based feedback from the game to the player, with little opportunity for thought in between. The interactive gameplay at this level—the loop from action to feedback—happens quickly, on the order of less than a second to at most two or three seconds.
对于主要由动作和反馈驱动的游戏，这些动作和反馈需要对玩家即时呈现，如果玩家的动作和游戏反馈之间的时间间隔少于 100 毫秒，则性能被认为基本上是即时的。为了保持真正的即时连接感，时间延迟不能超过约 250 毫秒，或四分之一秒（Card 等人，1983 年）。超过该时间范围，玩家将不会将反馈与之前的动作联系起来，除非反馈与长期、更具认知性的心理模型的某个方面具有象征意义的联系，即使如此，反馈也会让人感觉迟缓和延迟。
For games that are primarily driven by actions and feedback that need to appear instantaneous to the player, performance is perceived to be essentially instant if there is less than 100 milliseconds between the player’s action and the game’s feedback. To maintain any feeling of real instant connection, the time lag can be no more than about 250 milliseconds, or one-quarter of a second (Card et al. 1983). Beyond that timeframe, players will not associate feedback with a preceding action unless the feedback is symbolically related to an aspect of a longer-term, more cognitive mental model, and even then it will feel sluggish and delayed.
现在时动作和反射性注意
玩家的快速动作和反应是动作/反馈交互循环的前半部分。这可以描述为玩家的“现在时”。玩家现在在做什么？如果玩家对这个问题的回答是现在时，使用诸如行走、跑步、射击、跳跃等动词，那么他们的心理模型主要关注当下发生的事情，动作/反馈循环是他们参与游戏的很大一部分。然而，如果玩家倾向于用未来的目标或意图来描述他们正在做的事情（“我正在完成这个任务”或“我正在组建这支军队，这样我就可以帮助我的朋友攻击那个城堡”），那么虽然动作/反馈交互仍然很重要，但它们是更长的认知、情感或社交循环的一部分（本章后面将介绍）。
A player’s fast actions and reactions are the first half of the action/feedback interactive loop. This can be described as the player’s “present tense.” What is the player doing right now? If the player’s answer to this question is in the present tense, using verbs like walking, running, shooting, jumping, and so on, then their mental model is primarily taken up with what is happening in the moment, and the action/feedback loop is a large part of their engagement with the game. If, however, the player tends to describe what they are doing in terms of future goals or intentions (“I am completing this quest” or “I am building up this army so I can help my friend attack that citadel”), then while the action/feedback interactions remain important, they exist as part of a longer cognitive, emotional, or social loop (described later in this chapter).
在反馈方面，这是反射性注意的范畴，也称为外源性注意，或由外部事件而非玩家的意识意图控制的注意（Mayer 等人，2004 年）。我们的大脑天生对可能很重要的新刺激保持警惕。当然，这包括突然出现的威胁，但这似乎也是我们的眼睛被明亮、多彩、快速出现的物体所吸引的原因，尤其是那些在我们的周边视觉中的物体（Yantis 和 Jonides，1990 年）。从打地鼠到高级第一人称射击游戏，许多游戏都使用这种机制作为其主要游戏形式，许多玩家报告说，在玩这类游戏时，他们感到兴奋和积极的紧张感（Yee，2016b 年）。大量使用快速、色彩丰富、生动活泼、嘈杂反馈的游戏通常被称为“刺激”，指的是这种令人愉悦的多模式感官输入冲击（Gabler 等人，2005 年；Juul 和 Begy，2016 年）。由于游戏的注意力方面及其主要互动性处于这一水平，因此游戏玩法并不特别周到，但其实也不必如此：只要保持这种“刺激”循环，玩家就会保持警觉、专注，随时准备应对可能出现的任何情况，并学会快速做出反应。这种快速循环产生了 Steve Swink（2009 年）所说的“游戏感……操纵虚拟对象的触觉、动觉。这是游戏中的控制感。”以这种方式与游戏对象互动本身就是一种即时的愉悦感。
On the feedback side, this is the realm of reflexive attention, also known as exogenous attention, or attention controlled by external events rather than the player’s conscious intent (Mayer et al. 2004). Our brains are built to be on alert for new stimuli that may be important. This includes the sudden appearance of threats, of course, but also appears to be why our eyes are drawn to bright, colorful, fast-appearing objects, especially those in our peripheral vision (Yantis and Jonides 1990). Many games from Whack-a-Mole to advanced first-person shooters make use of this mechanism for their primary form of gameplay, and many players report a feeling of excitement and positive tension while playing such games (Yee 2016b). Games that make abundant use of fast, colorful, animated, noisy feedback are often referred to as being “juicy,” as a way of referring to this pleasant multi-modal onslaught of sensory input (Gabler et al. 2005, Juul and Begy 2016). Because the attentional aspect of games with their primary interactivity at this level is so reflexive, the gameplay isn’t particularly thoughtful, but it doesn’t need to be: as long as this “juicy” loop is maintained, the player remains alert, focused, and ready for whatever may pop up and learns to react quickly as well. This fast loop gives rise to what Steve Swink (2009) called “game feel…the tactile, kinesthetic sense of manipulating a virtual object. It’s the sensation of control in a game.” Interacting with game objects this way is immediately pleasurable for its own sake.
快速行动的压力和回报
许多快节奏的游戏要求玩家对（通常是视觉）刺激做出快速而准确的反应。这样做会给人类的感知和运动系统带来压力，正如菲茨定律（Fitts and Peterson 1964）所描述的那样，该定律指出，移动到指定目标所需的时间与目标的大小成反比：我们能够快速轻松地指向（例如使用手指或鼠标指针）大目标内的某个区域。随着目标变小，尤其是如果事先不知道其位置，我们移动到该目标所需的时间就会更长。成功完成这种反射性注意力任务让人感觉很好；它会在我们的大脑中释放多巴胺和去甲肾上腺素，鼓励我们再来一次。这种快速动作也带有一点 Caillois 的ilinx游戏风格，即使它只是玩家用指尖在鼠标上移动：快速、精确、良好地移动的感觉是使其令人愉悦的部分原因。
Many fast-paced games require the player to respond quickly and accurately to (typically visual) stimuli. Doing so stresses the human perceptual and motor system, as described by Fitts’ Law (Fitts and Peterson 1964), which states that the time required to move to a specified target varies inversely with the size of the target: we are able to point (using a finger or mouse pointer, for example) to an area within a large target quickly and easily. As the target becomes smaller, and especially if its placement is not known beforehand, our ability to move to it takes longer. The successful completion of such a reflexive attentional task feels good; it releases dopamine and norepinephrine in our brains, encouraging us to go one more time. This kind of fast motion also carries with it a bit of Caillois’ ilinx play, even if it is only in the player’s fingertips on a mouse: the feeling of moving quickly, precisely, and well is part of what makes it enjoyable.
许多简单的数字游戏只不过是这样的行动/反馈循环。许多早期的街机游戏在玩法上都是确定性的，这意味着游戏中的对手每次玩游戏时都会以完全相同的方式移动和行动；吃豆人就是一个典型的例子，因为“幽灵”每次玩游戏时都会以相同的方式移动。这种确定性意味着玩家必须学习一种特定的不变的反应模式才能成功玩游戏。经过充分的练习后，这需要在非常紧密的动作/反馈循环中死记硬背反应，但不需要显著的认知。通过程序记忆（有时称为“肌肉记忆”，通过重复学习）足够准确地执行这些模式使玩家能够继续玩游戏，直到游戏速度超出他们的反应能力。
Many simple digital games are little more than action/feedback loops like this. Many early arcade games were deterministic in their play, meaning that the in-game opponents moved and acted exactly the same way every time the game was played; Pac-Man is a prime example, as the “ghosts” moved the same way every time the game was played. This determinism meant that the player had to learn a particular unchanging pattern of responses to play successfully. After sufficient practice, this required rote responses in a very tight action/feedback loop but no significant cognition. Executing these patterns accurately enough via procedural memory (sometimes called “muscle memory,” learned via repetition) enabled the player to continue playing until the speed of the game exceeded their ability to respond.
最近，像经典的《神庙逃亡》这样的无尽奔跑游戏，玩家不断向前冲刺，需要本能地注意并快速感知要往哪个方向走，要撞到或避开哪些障碍物，而且速度越来越快。随着游戏的进行，动作/反馈循环的持续时间越来越短，游戏速度也越来越快。游戏令人兴奋且有趣，直到速度太快，变得基本上无法玩。
More recently, games known as endless runners, like the classic Temple Run, present a situation where the player is continually hurtling forward and is required to reflexively attend and quickly perceive which direction to go and which obstacles to hit or avoid, at a faster and faster pace. As the game proceeds, the action/feedback loop becomes shorter and shorter in duration and the game speeds up. The game is exciting and enjoyable until it goes too fast and becomes essentially unplayable.
然而，这种不可玩性会引发一种内在的行动号召——我们经常会体验到“再试一次”的现象。如果玩家处于一个短暂而专注的循环中，大脑已经准备好迎接下一个成就，那么他们就会非常强烈地想要再试一次，看看自己是否能做得更好、走得更远。（这是主游戏的一种外循环或元游戏。）玩家的心理模型会随着他们学习游戏而改进，但在这种情况下，主要是通过基于重复的运动学习，在感知和行动方面得到改进，而不是认知层面。当游戏速度太快而无法满足玩家的运动技能水平时，游戏必然会结束……除非玩家想再试一次。
There is an inherent call to action that results from this unplayability, though—we often experience it as the “just one more try” phenomenon. If the player is in a short, focused loop, with his brain ready for that next achievement, the desire to try one more time to see if he can do a little better, get a little further, can be very strong. (This is a form of outer-loop or metagame to the main game.) The player’s mental model improves as they learn the game, but in this case primarily at a more perceptual and action-oriented rather than cognitive level via repetition-based motor learning. When the game goes too fast for the player’s motor-based skill level, it necessarily comes to an end…unless the player wants to try just one more time.
即使是在动作/反馈循环之上采用其他形式认知玩法的游戏，也经常会大量利用我们的神经和低级感知架构，要求玩家在恰当的时间移动、点击或单击，以移动游戏单位，或让游戏角色在严格的容差范围内奔跑、跳跃、射击、躲避等。或者，即使游戏不需要快速反应，许多游戏提供的反馈也如上所述丰富多彩：色彩鲜艳、生动活泼，并使用令人愉悦、激动人心的声音和音乐作为对玩家的反馈，将他们的感知系统作为唤醒和奖励机制。
Even games with other forms of cognitive gameplay layered on top of the action/feedback loops often make significant use of our neurological and low-level perceptual architecture by requiring that players move, tap, or click at just the right time to move in-game units around or make their in-game avatar run, jump, shoot, duck, and so on within tight tolerances. Or, even if the gameplay does not require fast reactions, the feedback provided by many games is juicy as described above: colorful, animated, and using pleasing, exciting sounds and music as feedback to the player, engaging their perceptual systems as arousal and reward mechanisms.
近年来最生动的例子之一是Peggle游戏。游戏玩法依赖于精细的身体输入和一些短期认知（本章后面将讨论），但真正出彩的地方在于它如何提供极其有效的感知反馈，尤其是作为成功游戏的奖励。游戏画面总体上色彩鲜艳、吸引人（吸引玩家的注意力），但在游戏的关键时刻，它展现了一些最夸张的（以一种好的方式）视觉和听觉示例当今游戏中的反馈。游戏玩法包括射击小球以取出游戏板上的各种桩。在高潮时刻，当球飞向特定的指定桩时，摄像机拉近，球的飞行进入慢动作，伴随着激动人心的鼓声——然后，当球击中桩时，突然出现五彩缤纷的烟花，闪闪发光的文字“极度狂热”，欢乐颂的合唱声不断高涨，万花筒般的光谱轨迹，更多的烟花和落下的色彩鲜艳的星星，一道巨大的绚丽彩虹飞过屏幕，最后是一个以巨大数字显示的快速上升的分数。
One of the most vibrant examples of this in recent years is the game Peggle. The gameplay relies on a combination of fine-tuned physical input and some short-term cognition (as discussed later in this chapter), but where it really shines is in how it provides enormously effective perceptual feedback, particularly as rewards for successful play. The game display overall is colorful and attractive (catching the player’s attention), but during key moments of play, it exhibits some of the most over-the-top (in a good way) examples of visual and auditory feedback in games today. The gameplay consists of shooting a small ball to take out various pegs on the game board. At a climactic moment, as the ball flies toward a particular designated peg, the camera zooms in, the ball’s flight goes to slow motion, there’s a dramatic drumroll—and then, as the ball hits the peg, there’s a sudden and triumphant bloom of multicolored fireworks, the glowing words EXTREME FEVER, a swelling chorus of Ode to Joy, kaleidoscopic spectral trails, more fireworks with falling brightly colored stars, an enormous brilliant rainbow racing across the screen, and finally a rapidly ascending score displayed in huge numbers.
所有这些都有效地激发了感知和神经化学系统，成为正确输入的积极强化的绝佳例子，从而使玩家保持兴奋和参与。
All this effectively engages perceptual and neurochemical systems as masterful examples of positive reinforcement for correct input and thus keeps the player aroused and engaged.
即时游戏
动作/反馈交互是大多数游戏设计中的一个重要考虑因素，即使是那些主要依赖其他形式的交互循环的游戏。这通常被描述为即时游戏。游戏设计师必须回答的关键问题之一是“玩家在玩游戏的每一刻都在做什么？”这与上面讨论的动作/反馈交互的“现在时”性质有关。游戏提供了什么反馈，它如何帮助他们建立心理模型，以及他们可以在此基础上采取什么行动？
Action/feedback interactivity is an important consideration in design for most games, even those that rely primarily on other forms of interactivity loops. This is often described as moment-to-moment gameplay. One of the key questions a game designer must answer is “What is the player doing in every moment that they are playing?” This is related to the “present tense” nature of action/feedback interactivity discussed above. What feedback is the game providing, how does it help them build a mental model, and what actions can they take based on that?
游戏若不提供定期、及时的反馈和玩家行动机会，就有可能让玩家感到无聊和失去兴趣，除非他们有其他形式的互动游戏来吸引他们的兴趣。虽然并非所有游戏都使用快节奏的动作/反馈互动循环，但所有游戏都在某种程度上为玩家提供了感知的输出和改变游戏状态的输入方法。正是这种即时互动循环充当了随后其他互动形式的载体。
Games that do not provide regular, timely feedback and opportunities for player action risk allowing the player to become bored and disengaged unless they have other forms of interactive gameplay to hold their interest. While not all games make use of a fast-paced action/feedback interaction loop, all do at some level provide output for the player to perceive and methods of input for the player to change the game state. It is this moment-to-moment interactivity loop that acts as a sort of carrier wave for the other forms of interaction that follow.
认知互动
Cognitive Interactivity
抛开玩家的神经学，进入他们的心理学，作为远离通常快节奏的动作/反馈循环的第一步，我们可以看看短期和长期认知互动循环。这些循环可以从谜题（短期）和目标（长期）的角度来思考，或者用游戏中常用的军事术语来说，战术和战略。两者都涉及高水平的内生注意力或执行注意力——非正式地称为专注于规划未来行动的思考。
Moving away from the player’s neurology and into their psychology, and as a first step away from the often fast-paced action/feedback loop, we can look at short-term and long-term cognitive interaction loops. These loops can be thought of in terms of puzzles (short term) and goals (long term) or, in military terms often used in games, tactics and strategy. Both involve a high level of endogenous, or executive, attention—informally known as thinking focused on planning upcoming actions.
这里的短期和长期是相对且灵活的：需要少量规划的快速解谜可能只持续几秒钟（例如在简单的数独游戏中找到数字的正确位置），而战略规划可能需要几分钟到几小时的专注认知。这里的关键要素是理性思考和认知的融入。玩家不仅仅是在动作/反馈互动中对情况做出反应；他们正在规划下一步行动，制定目标，然后最终向游戏提供输入以实现这些目标。
Short- and long-term here are relative and flexible: a quick puzzle requiring a small amount of planning might last only a few seconds (for example finding the right spot for a number in an easy Sudoku game), while strategic planning might require minutes to hours of dedicated, focused cognition. The key component here is the inclusion of rational thought and cognition. The player is not merely reacting to circumstances as in action/feedback interaction; they are planning their next moves, creating their goals, and then eventually providing input to the game to carry these out.
认知互动的一个重要方面是明显的、有意识的学习。每种形式的互动都涉及一定程度的学习：动作/反馈互动通过身体和潜认知（不是真正有意识的）重复创造学习，玩家也学会在社交互动中调整自己的行为。但是，对于认知互动来说，技能和知识的经典增长——有时被广泛称为掌握——是一个主要组成部分和好处。玩填字游戏或数独的玩家提高了他们的技能，从而提高了他们玩同一谜题更难版本的能力。同样，许多桌面游戏和数字游戏都具有足够的认知互动，随着接触的增加和建立更好的心理模型，玩家能够在游戏中表现得更好。学习和掌握的增加是许多玩家的主要动机（学习新技能会释放大脑中的多巴胺等），尤其是那些致力于奋斗和成就作为个人动机的玩家。（玩家动机将在第 6 章中进一步讨论。）
An important aspect of cognitive interactivity is overt, conscious learning. Each form of interactivity involves some amount of learning: action/feedback interactions create learning by physical and subcognitive (not really conscious) repetition, and players learn to adjust their behavior in social interactions as well. But with cognitive interactivity, classical increase in skills and knowledge—what is sometimes broadly termed mastery—is a major component and benefit. Players who do crossword puzzles or Sudoku increase their skill and, thus, their ability to play more difficult versions of the same puzzles. Similarly, many tabletop and digital games have a sufficient cognitive interactions that with increased exposure and building a better mental model, players are able to perform better at the game. This increase in learning and mastery is a major motivation for many players (learning a new skill releases dopamine in the brain, among other things), especially those who are intent on striving and achievement as personal motivations. (Player motivations are discussed further in Chapter 6.)
创造认知互动
要创建认知交互循环，游戏必须向玩家展示他们可以计划和实现的目标。这些目标一开始应该很简单（杀死这个怪物，建造这栋建筑，移动到这个点），但随着时间的推移——随着玩家建立他们的心理模型——它们会变得越来越复杂（更多步骤）和越来越复杂（更多循环，更多地基于过去行动的结果）。这些更复杂、更长期的计划需要更多的执行注意力。它们还要求玩家能够根据他们对游戏世界运作方式的了解来预测他们的行动的结果，无论是短期还是长期。
To create cognitive interactive loops, a game has to present the player with goals they can plan on and accomplish. These goals should be simple at first (kill this monster, construct this building, move to this point), but over time—as the player builds their mental model—they become more complicated (more steps) and more complex (more looping, more building on results of past actions). These more complex, longer-term plans require more executive attention. They also require that the player be able to predict the outcome of their actions, both short and long term, based on what they have learned about how the game world works.
游戏的内部模型必须具有足够的深度，以支持（并帮助玩家建立）类似的心理模型深度。如果游戏系统没有自己的层次深度，玩家几乎没有能力形成自己的深度目标，也没有理由这样做。因此，在内容驱动的游戏中，玩家从一个级别进入另一个级别，玩家除了短期思考之外几乎不需要做任何事情；没有重要的长期目标规划或其他认知互动。一些游戏通过加入角色定制（例如技能树）等长期活动来弥补这一点，玩家可以与更线性、级别驱动的游戏玩法并行考虑这些活动。这为玩家提供了不同的路径和替代方案供其思考，但一旦这些路径和替代方案用尽，玩家就没有其他选择了。
The game has to have sufficient depth in its internal model to support (and help the player build) similar depth in their mental model. If the game’s systems don’t have their own hierarchical depth, the player has little ability to form their own deep goals and little reason to do so. Thus in a content-driven game where the player proceeds from level to level, the player has to do little in the way of anything more than short-term thinking; there’s no significant long-term goal planning or other cognitive interaction. Some games make up for this by including long-term activities such as character customization (for example, skill trees) that the player considers in parallel with their more linear, level-driven gameplay. This gives the player different paths and alternatives to think about, but once these are exhausted, the player is left without additional options.
相比之下，在系统性游戏中，玩家能够提前规划并根据短期和长期效用选择不同的路径（例如，在哪里建造城堡以获得最大的防御价值以及为未来市场定位），解决方案会尽可能多样化，只要游戏系统允许。游戏空间仍然很广阔，可供玩家探索，从而让玩家参与得更好、更持久。
By contrast, in a systemic game where the player has the ability to plan ahead and choose different paths based on both short- and long-term utility—for example, where to build a castle for maximum defensive value and for placement of a future market—the solutions are as varied as the game systems allow. The play-space remains broad and explorable by the player, making for better, longer engagement.
混合互动类型
认知互动很少（如果有的话）是独立的。最有思想且不依赖动作/反馈互动的游戏是一些最古老的游戏，例如国际象棋 和围棋。然而，即使是这些游戏也没有完全摆脱最低层次的互动。围棋只是由网格上的黑子和白子组成——就物理输入和感官反馈而言，围棋可以说是最简朴的游戏了——但即使如此，玩家在玩游戏时也会操纵棋子，尽管视觉效果看起来很严肃，但仍然可以说这是一场美丽的游戏。
Cognitive interactivity rarely, if ever, stands alone. The games that are the most thoughtful and free of reliance on action/feedback interactivity are some of the oldest games, such as Chess and Go. However, even these games do not escape the lowest level of interaction completely. Go consists of nothing but black stones and white stones on a grid—about as austere as a game can be in terms of physical input and sensory feedback—but even here players manipulate the stones as they play the game and may speak of a beautiful game despite its apparent visual severity.
当棋手在围棋棋盘上操控棋子时，他们会运用深植于他们心智模型中的多层次互动：甚至在玩游戏之前，他们就知道如何拾起、握住和放下棋子，在这样做的同时，他们也会从短期战术和长期战略的角度进行思考。随着玩家技能的提高，一些较低级别的战术认知会组合成系统层次结构。此时，玩家对游戏的大部分知识基本上是隐性的，许多动作所需的思考和从杯子里捡起棋子所需的思考一样少。这让玩家可以自由地将更多的认知资源投入到他们的长期战略中。随着他们将越来越多的游戏战术方面组合在一起，他们的心智模型变得越来越深，越来越有层次，同时他们对游戏的欣赏也越来越深。
As players manipulate the stones on the Go board, they are using multiple levels of interaction deeply ingrained in their mental model: even before playing the game, they know how to pick up, hold, and deposit stones, and while doing so, they are thinking both in terms of short-term tactics and long-term strategy for the game. As a player advances in skill, some of the lower-level tactical cognition becomes chunked together into systemic hierarchies. At this point, much of the player’s knowledge of the game is essentially tacit, with many moves requiring as little thought as required to pick up a stone from the cup. This leaves the player free to devote more of their cognitive resources to their longer-term strategies. As they chunk more and more tactical aspects of the game together, their mental model becomes deeper and deeper, more and more hierarchical, paralleled by their deepening appreciation for the game.
比围棋这种几乎纯粹的认知互动更为常见的是，将丰富的感官体验与短期解谜认知（例如《糖果粉碎传奇》）以及通常的长期认知相结合的游戏。许多战略游戏都带有华丽、有趣的视觉效果，虽然这些视觉效果在游戏玩法方面没有作用，但尽管缺乏实用价值，却增加了玩游戏的乐趣。
Far more common than the almost pure cognitive interaction of Go are games that combine a rich sensory experience with short-term puzzle-oriented cognition (for example, Candy Crush) and often long-term cognition. Many strategic games come with lush, juicy visuals that are not operative in terms of the gameplay but add to the enjoyable experience of playing the game despite their lack of utilitarian value.
短期认知互动循环也是玩家在游戏中即时体验的重要组成部分，尤其是当玩家为了追求长期目标而完成一系列快速、短期目标时。例如，幻想角色扮演游戏中的玩家可能会报告他们正在点击鼠标（动作/反馈互动），这样他们的角色就会攻击怪物（短期认知），这样他们就可以升级（长期认知）并最终加入首选公会（社交互动——接下来讨论）。
Short-term cognitive interaction loops can also be an important part of the player’s moment-to-moment experience in the game, especially when the player is completing a series of quick, short-term goals in the pursuit of longer-term ones. For example, a player in a fantasy role-playing game might report that they are clicking the mouse (action/feedback interaction) so their character will attack a monster (short-term cognitive) so that they can level up (long-term cognitive) and eventually join a preferred guild (social interaction—discussed next).
社交互动
Social Interactivity
社交互动在很多方面与认知和情感互动密切相关。这也涉及玩家的计划和执行注意力，但它也开始引入反思性、情感性成分，即它涉及玩家经常体验到的情感反应——包容、排斥、地位、尊重等等——这是由于他们的游戏外动机。不同之处在于，这些体验只有在社交环境中才会出现，这对我们人类来说很重要。虽然有神经化学基础（如大脑中血清素和催产素的作用），但社交互动和参与通常比认知参与需要更长的时间才能实现。虽然与另一个人的对话可能很简短，但通常需要在数小时、数天甚至数周的时间内进行多次此类互动才能解决社交互动输入和响应循环。
Closely related in many ways to both cognitive and emotional interaction is social interactivity. This too involves planning and executive attention on the player’s part, though it also begins to introduce a reflective, emotional component in that it involves what players often experience as emotional responses—inclusion, exclusion, status, esteem, and so on—due to their out-of-game motivations. The difference is that these are experiences we have only in a social context, something that is important for us as humans. While there are neurochemical underpinnings (as with the action of serotonin and oxytocin in the brain), social interactivity and engagement typically take even longer to come to fruition than does cognitive engagement. While a conversation with another person may be brief, it often takes many such interactions over a period of hours, days, or even weeks to resolve a social interaction input and response loop.
人们有可能相对较快地获得积极的社会体验，但获得真正的包容感和社区感却可能需要很长时间。
It is possible to have a positive social experience relatively quickly, but coming to a real feeling of inclusion and community can take a long time.
与长期认知战略互动一样，社交互动也是大多数人的强大动力。一些单人游戏设法将社交互动作为游戏的重要组成部分，即使游戏中没有其他实际人物。最近的一个例子是《看火人》，玩家在游戏中扮演森林火灾瞭望员的角色。游戏的很大一部分时间都是通过对讲机与另一个角色 Delilah 对话。虽然玩家和 Delilah 从未见过面，但发展他们关系的社交互动（根据玩家在对话中的社交选择，关系可能会发生不同的转变）演变为游戏的驱动部分。
Like long-term cognitive strategic interaction, social interactivity is a powerful motivator for most people. Some single-player games manage to make social interactivity an important part of the game, even though there is no other actual person in the game. One recent example of this is Firewatch, in which the player plays the part of a forest fire lookout. A significant amount of the game is spent in dialog with another character, Delilah, talking over a walkie-talkie. While the player and Delilah never meet, the social interactivity that develops their relationship—which can take different turns, depending on the player’s social choices in dialog—evolves into a driving part of the game.
游戏介导的社交互动
许多在线游戏，尤其是大型多人在线游戏 (MMO)，玩家共同生活在一个虚拟世界中，它们的成功归功于它们让玩家能够进行社交互动，无论是互相帮助还是互相战斗。在多人游戏中，游戏（及其内部模型）在玩家之间起中介作用：每个玩家通过与世界互动来与其他玩家互动。如果我的角色向你的角色挥舞剑，或者我的商人提出向你的店主出售一些毛皮，我们作为玩家就是通过游戏世界进行互动。在这种情况下，每个玩家都有自己的游戏互动循环，一个玩家的行为的影响不仅会改变游戏世界，还会改变其他玩家、他们的心理模型以及随后的互动。游戏没有在玩家之间进行中介的唯一情况是他们实际上通过文本或语音聊天进行社交。这种级别的社交互动有自己的循环，现在在个人之间，并由游戏介导的游戏循环辅助。
Many online games, especially massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) in which players inhabit a virtual world together, owe their success to how they have enabled players to interact socially, whether helping or fighting each other. In multiplayer games, the game (and its internal model) mediates between players: each player interacts with the others by interacting with the world. If my character swings a sword at your character, or if my trader offers to sell some pelts to your shopkeeper, we as players are interacting via the game world. In this case, each player has their own interaction loop with the game, and the effects of one player’s actions change not only the game world but, by extension, other players, their mental models, and subsequent interactions. The only case in which the game is not mediating between players is when they are actually socializing in conversation via text or voice chat. This level of social interaction has its own loops, now between individuals, and is aided by the game-mediated loops of gameplay.
虽然这些游戏中的内容（探索世界、参与战斗等）很吸引人，但这些游戏的社交性才是吸引玩家的因素。人们希望体验成为群体一员的感觉，并且经常希望看到自己可以认同为“其他”的群体（尽管这似乎比包容性和群体内认同更能激发玩家的热情）。包含数千人的在线游戏提供了满足这种渴望的社交互动循环。根据我自己运行 MMO 的经验，玩家通常表示，即使他们觉得自己已经看过并玩过游戏中的所有游戏（内容驱动而非系统方法），他们仍会留下来享受社区和社交互动的感觉。
While the content in these games—exploring the world, engaging in combat, and so on—is attractive, it is the social aspect of these games that keeps players coming back. People want to have the experience of feeling like part of a group and often want the experience of seeing groups that they can identify as “other” (though this appears to be less a motivator than inclusion and in-group identity). Online games containing many thousands of people provide the social interactivity loops to feed this desire. In my own experience running MMOs, players have commonly said that even after they felt like they had seen and done all there was to do in the game (a content-driven rather than systemic approach), they stayed around for the feeling of community and social interaction.
鼓励社交互动的技巧
游戏环境中的社交互动主要发生在玩家发现他们需要彼此或从游戏中的互动中受益时。游戏中有许多常见的机制可以鼓励玩家进行社交互动，而不仅仅是聊天。本文探讨的一些重要机制包括提供社交参照物、竞争、分组、互补角色和社会互惠。
Social interactivity in the context of a game happens primarily when players find that they need each other or that they benefit from interacting with each other within the game. There are a number of common in-game mechanisms for encouraging players to interact socially beyond just chatting. Some important mechanisms for doing this that are explored here are providing social referents, competition, grouping, complementary roles, and social reciprocity.
社会指涉
鼓励社交互动最简单的方法之一就是添加一个或多个对象，以便多个玩家可以一起互动。这是从 20 世纪 90 年代的在线图形聊天室中吸取的教训，当时，在 3D 空间中一起聊天的能力很快就失去了任何参与感。游戏世界中的“好玩”对象是玩家认为有意义的社交互动的催化剂。这些对象正式称为外部社交指称：两个或多个玩家可以以社交方式引用和互动的东西。最简单的例子可能是一个球。在现实生活中或在数字游戏中（具有游戏内物理），如果你给一些人一个球，他们就有了建立社交互动的基础；阻止某种即兴游戏几乎是不可能的。因此，在游戏世界中提供邀请多个玩家互动的对象是播下社交互动种子的绝佳方式。
One of the simplest methods to encourage social interactivity is simply to include one or more objects with which multiple players can interact together. This is a lesson taken from the online graphical chat rooms of the 1990s, where just the ability to chat together in a 3D space quickly lost any sense of engagement. “Playful” objects in the game world act as a catalyst to social interaction that players find meaningful. Such objects are known formally as external social referents: something that two or more players can refer to and interact with in a social manner. The simplest example of this is probably a ball. In real life or in a digital game (with in-game physics), if you give some people a ball, they have a foundation on which to build social interactions; preventing an impromptu game of some sort is almost impossible. Thus, providing objects within a game world that invite interactions from multiple players is an excellent way to seed social interactivity.
竞赛
竞争是许多极受欢迎的游戏的共同特征，玩家们以个人或团体的形式相互对抗，看谁能打败对方，通常是为了获得一些奖品。游戏中有赢家和输家，尤其是如果按照分数和/或排行榜排名，那么这对许多人来说是一种有吸引力的游戏激励。一些游戏类型，如第一人称射击游戏和 MOBA（多人在线战斗竞技场），完全基于竞争性游戏，现在拥有整个职业玩家联盟。（请注意，这些游戏中团队的存在会产生强大的团体内/团体外效应，增强社交互动性。）竞争是许多玩家在游戏之外的强大激励因素。同时，它也极大地打击了一些玩家的积极性，并且是随着年龄增长而消退最快的一种激励类型（Yee 2016a）。
Competition is a common aspect of many extremely popular games, where players face off against each other, either singly or in groups, to see who can best the other, and often to take some prize. Having winners and losers, especially if they are ranked by score and/or on a leaderboard, is an attractive incentive for many to play a game. Some genres of games, like first-person shooters and MOBAs (multiplayer online battle arenas), are based wholly on competitive play and now boast entire leagues of professional players. (Note that the existence of teams in these games creates a powerful in-group/out-group effect, enhancing the social interactivity.) Competition is a strong out-of-game motivator for many players. At the same time, it is also highly demotivating for some players, and is the type of motivation that fades fastest with age (Yee 2016a).
分组
为玩家提供组队方式有助于建立社交互动、包容感和共同身份。这是玩家在游戏中所拥有的几乎所有社区意识的基础。大多数游戏都会将团体形成正式的游戏结构，并以联盟、行会、派对和公司等名称命名。一名玩家创建团体并通常进行管理，包括允许谁成为成员、不同玩家拥有哪些团内特权（例如，访问共享资源），以及在某些情况下，发起玩家可以将领导权传给谁。其他游戏则让玩家自行决定组建临时或长期团体。例如，在在线 MMO Realm of the Mad God中，只要玩家彼此靠近，他们都会从对方所做的任何事情中获得经验值。这鼓励玩家以低摩擦的方式一起玩游戏，因为他们不必正式“组队”；游戏只是假设如果他们彼此靠近，他们就会互相帮助。同时，由于这款游戏没有建立长期团体结构的游戏内机制，社交互动仍是短期的，因此不鼓励更长时间的社交参与。在其他有正式公会或联盟（本质上是玩家加入的俱乐部）的游戏中，社交参与往往会持续更长时间，这对玩家和整个游戏都有好处。
Giving players ways to group together helps build social interaction, a sense of inclusion, and shared identity. This is the basis for almost all sense of community that players have in a game. Most games make groups formal game structures that go by names like alliances, guilds, parties, and corporations. One player starts the group and typically administers it, including who is allowed to be a member, what in-group privileges different players have (for example, access to shared resources), and, in some cases, to whom the originating player can pass leadership. Other games leave it up to the players to form ad hoc or long-term groups. For example, in the online MMO Realm of the Mad God, any time players are near each other, they both gain experience points from anything the other does. This encourages players to play together in a low-friction way, since they don’t have to officially “group up”; the game just assumes that if they’re near each other, they’re helping each other out. At the same time, because this game has no in-game mechanism for forming long-term group structures, the social interactivity remains short term and thus does not encourage longer social engagement. In other games that have formal guilds or alliances that are essentially clubs that players join, the social engagement tends to last much longer, benefiting both the players and the game overall.
互补角色
游戏中存在互补角色，没有一个玩家可以做所有事情。这在角色扮演游戏中最为常见，玩家角色分为坦克（吸收伤害）、DPS（“每秒伤害”——持续造成伤害，通常是远距离）和支援（治疗和增强——“增强”——其他玩家）。这些能力的组合让玩家在游戏中进行社交互动，互相帮助。这样，玩家就实现了他们自己都无法实现的一些目标。在游戏中使用互补角色还会涉及大量的神经化学参与，包括多巴胺、血清素和催产素以及动作/反馈和短期认知。因此，这是一种非常强大的游戏持续参与机制。
Complementary roles exist in games where no one player can do everything. These are perhaps most common in role-playing games, where player characters fall into roles like tanks (damage absorption), DPS (“damage per second”—dealing damage over time, typically from a distance), and support (healing and enhancing—“buffing”—other players). This combination of abilities sets players up to interact socially within the game to help each other out. In so doing, the players achieve some goal that none of them could have achieved on their own. Using complementary roles in a game also subsumes a great deal of neurochemical engagement involving dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin as well as action/feedback and short-term cognition. As a result, it is an extremely powerful mechanism for continued engagement in a game.
社会互惠
社会互惠是一种游戏形式，它建立在我们人类共同的愿望之上，即通过回馈（回报）帮助过自己的善举来表达我们对群体的参与。许多最畅销的手机游戏，如《战争游戏：火力时代》，都在很大程度上因为这种社交互动而取得了巨大的成功。例如，《战争游戏》让玩家可以轻松帮助联盟中的另一个玩家（游戏中的玩家队伍和社交团体）更快地建造或修复建筑物。当你看到其他玩家帮助你实现了目标时，你通常会想要回报他们，反过来帮助他们。这有助于联盟中的所有玩家，无论是个人还是团体，这是一种强有力的社会包容形式。
Social reciprocity is a form of gameplay that builds on our shared human desire to show our involvement with a group by reflecting back—reciprocating—good deeds done to help us. Many of the top-grossing mobile games, such as Game of War: Fire Age, have been immensely successful in large part because of this kind social interactivity. For example, Game of War makes it easy for players to help another player in their alliance (the player’s team and social group in the game) build or repair buildings faster. When you see that other players have helped you toward your goal, it’s common to have a desire to reciprocate by helping them out in turn. This helps all the players in the alliance both individually and as a group, and it is a powerful form of signaling social inclusion.
Game of War还支持玩家互相赠送礼物，尤其是当联盟中一名成员进行大额购买时，联盟中其他成员也会赠送礼物。这建立了另一种形式的互动社交互惠：如果一名玩家收到他人在游戏中购买的礼物，那么该玩家更有可能也这样做——这有助于增强其联盟的力量，增加社交联系，并且顺便为游戏带来更多收入。要衡量这种参与的价值，Game of War 的实际游戏玩法——建造要塞和军队并派遣他们出去战斗——与许多其他游戏的游戏玩法并没有太大不同，而且它被批评为平淡无奇甚至更糟。尽管如此，虽然这款游戏是免费的，但它也赚了数百万美元，连续数月每天的微交易收入接近 200 万美元（ Game of War—Fire Age 2017）。
Game of War also supports players giving each other gifts and, notably, provides gifts to others in an alliance when one member makes a significant purchase. This sets up another form of interactive social reciprocity: if a player receives a gift made possible by someone else’s purchase in the game, that player is far more likely to want to do the same—which helps her alliance’s strength, increases the social bonds, and, not incidentally, provides the game more revenue. To put a number on the value of this kind of engagement, Game of War’s actual gameplay—building strongholds and armies and sending them out to fight—is not remarkably different from the gameplay of many other games, and it has been criticized as being mundane or worse. Nevertheless, while the game is free to play, it has also made many millions of dollars, grossing nearly $2 million in micro-transactions per day for months on end (Game of War—Fire Age 2017).
不太社交的互动
许多所谓的“社交游戏”根本不具备社交性：像Farmville这样的非常成功的社交游戏几乎不涉及任何社交互动。玩家可以访问其他玩家的农场并帮助他们（清理杂草等），但这一切都是异步的：玩家永远不会看到对方或互动；他们就像是居住在平行维度的幽灵。虽然这看起来是社交性的，但它并不能满足玩家任何游戏外或游戏内的社交相关动机。玩家可能会因为让别人看到他们在自己的农场（或其他游戏中的城堡、城市等）上的工作而感到自豪，但这与他们从游戏中的实际社交互动中获得的感受相比，简直是微不足道。
Many so-called “social games” are anything but social: highly successful social games like Farmville involve almost no social interaction at all. Players can visit other players’ farms and help them out (clean up weeds and so on), but this is all asynchronous: the players never see each other or interact; they may as well be ghosts inhabiting parallel dimensions. While this may appear to be social, it does not satisfy any out-of-game or in-game socially related motivations for the players. Players may get some feelings of pride from having others see their work on their own farms (or castles, cities, and so on in other games), but this is a pale, thin comparison to the feelings they get from actual social interactions in a game.
情感互动
Emotional Interactivity
从执行性注意转向反思性注意（严格来说，即使不是认知性的，也是个体内生的），我们谈到了情感互动和参与。这是其他非互动媒体形式（如书籍和电影）的主要内容，但除了少数例外，在游戏中仍未得到充分探索。更准确地说，许多游戏已经探索了围绕愤怒、恐惧、紧张、惊讶、成就和喜悦的情感领域——这些情感与达马西奥（2003）和埃克曼（1992）所说的基本情感或原始情感有关。这些情感更具生物性而非认知性，它们迅速出现且不受玩家内部机构的控制，并且更具反射性和外生性，而非反射性和内生性。
Moving from executive to reflective attention (still, strictly speaking, endogenous to the individual, if not to their cognition), we come to emotional interaction and engagement. This is a staple of other non-interactive forms of media, such as books and movies, and yet with a few exceptions remains largely unexplored in games. To be more precise, many games have explored the emotional terrain around anger, fear, tension, surprise, achievement, and delight—those related to what Damasio (2003) and Ekman (1992) call basic, or primary, emotions. These are emotions that are more biological than cognitive, arise quickly and without control from the player’s internal agency, and are more reflexive and exogenous than reflective and endogenous.
直到最近几年，游戏设计师才开始有意探索超越这些基本情感的游戏，以提供更细微情感的体验，例如恐惧、内疚、失落、渴望、满足、爱、同谋、感激或荣誉，并在此基础上进行互动。这些都是在互动环境中创造的微妙体验，通常需要比行动/反馈或严格的认知互动更长的时间来产生和反思——通常需要几分钟或几小时。在某些情况下，当玩家反思他们在游戏中做出的决定和感受时，情感互动的影响可能会持续更长时间。
Only in recent years have game designers begun to intentionally explore games that go beyond these primary emotions to provide the experience of—and the ability to interact on the basis of—more nuanced emotions, such as dread, guilt, loss, longing, fulfillment, love, complicity, gratitude, or honor. These are delicate experiences to create in an interactive setting and typically take longer to arise and reflect on than action/feedback or strictly cognitive interactions—often on the order of many minutes or hours. In some cases, the effects of emotional interactivity can remain for far longer as players reflect on their decisions and feelings made in a game.
在书中，作者完全控制着人物的言行。作为读者，我们可能会为他们的行为喝彩、感到厌恶、看到他们感到被背叛、得到救赎等等，但与此同时，作者正带领我们踏上一段预先设定的旅程——我们无法与之互动来改变这段旅程。相比之下，在游戏中，我们有一个互动循环。如果我们在游戏中感到羞耻，我们可能会采取行动改变我们的处境，以避免或解决这种感觉。如果我们在游戏中感到爱或温柔，我们可能会惊讶地发现游戏（或游戏中的非人类角色）没有采取行动来支持这种体验。
In a book, the author has complete control over what the characters say and do. As readers, we may applaud their actions, be repulsed, see them feel betrayed, redeemed, and so on, but all the while we are being taken on a prespecified journey by the author—one that we cannot interact with to change. By contrast, in a game, we have interactive loops. If we feel shame as part of the game, we may act to change our circumstances to avoid or resolve those feelings. If we feel love or tenderness as part of the game, we may be surprised when the game (or nonhuman actors within it) does not act in ways to support that experience.
《请出示文件》等游戏既探讨道德问题，又探讨往往令人痛苦的情感问题，玩家必须决定（有时选择采取行动）其他角色的命运。玩家扮演反乌托邦国家的移民官员，必须决定让谁入境，这往往会带来个人和情感上的影响。同样令人不快的是，《这是我的战争》和《灰发人》等游戏以原始的情感视角展现了战争对现代背景下的平民（《这是我的战争》）和第一次世界大战中战士（《灰发人》）的影响。玩家必须做出绝望的决定和权衡，因为没有明确的正确答案，做看似正确的事情可能会带来长期的情感毁灭性后果。
Games such as Papers, Please explore both ethical and often wrenching emotional situations in which the player must decide (and sometimes choose to act on) the fate of other characters. The player plays the part of an immigration officer in a dystopian country who must decide who to let in or not, often with personal and emotional consequences. In a similarly unhappy vein, games like This War of Mine and The Grizzled provide an emotionally raw look at the effects of war on civilians in a modern setting (This War of Mine) and warfighters in World War I (The Grizzled). Players must make desperate decisions and trade-offs where there are no clear right answers and where doing the seemingly right thing may have emotionally devastating long-term consequences.
其他游戏，例如《风之旅人》，在互动环境中为玩家带来了敬畏和惊奇的感觉。许多角色扮演游戏探索了浪漫的主题——获得、失去和令人满意地重新获得爱情——例如《旧共和国武士》的经典互动浪漫故事。甚至桌面游戏，例如最近（2016 年）的《Burgle Bros》和《Fugitive》，也在探索情感是游戏玩法的一部分：《Burgle Bros》巧妙地创造了一种犯罪行动的合作感，这种行动总是在灾难的边缘徘徊，而《Fugitive》则营造了一种紧张而又引人入胜的“捉住我”/“他们就要逃跑了”的感觉，就像一个罪犯在逃避警察的追捕。在这些游戏中，情感都是游戏的关键部分，是玩家与之互动的东西，因此它推动着他们的决策和他们对游戏的整体体验。情感不仅仅是一种后遗症，也不是以一种不真诚的方式“附加”的。
Other games, such as Journey, have provided players with a sense of awe and wonder in an interactive setting. Many role-playing games have explored themes of romance—love gained, lost, and satisfyingly regained—such as in the classic interactive romantic arc of Knights of the Old Republic. Even tabletop games like the recent (2016) Burgle Bros and Fugitive are exploring emotions as part of gameplay: Burgle Bros ingeniously creates the cooperative feeling of a crime caper that continually teeters on the edge of disaster, while Fugitive builds a tense but engaging “catch me if you can”/“they’re about to get away” feeling of a criminal fleeing a pursuing marshal. In each of these games, the emotions are a key part of the game, something with which the player interacts, and which thus drive their decisions and their overall experience of the game. The emotions aren’t simply an after effect or “bolted on” in an insincere way.
构建情感互动
虽然越来越多的游戏能够激发玩家的情绪，但如何在游戏玩法中加入情绪仍是一个远未解决的问题。事实上，对情绪的理解是一个活跃的研究领域，有许多相互竞争的模型和理论。在游戏设计中，也有多种富有洞察力的游戏情绪模型，其中包括 Lazzaro (2004)、Bura (2008) 和 Cook (2011a) 等人的模型。
While there are more and more examples of games that elicit emotions in their players, how to include emotions in gameplay is still far from a solved problem. In fact, the understanding of emotions in general is an active area of research, with lots of competing models and theories. In game design, too, there are multiple insightful models of emotions in games, including those from Lazzaro (2004), Bura (2008), and Cook (2011a), among others.
就像游戏设计理论中的许多其他理论一样，尽管这些理论通常基于长期经验、大量思考，在某些情况下甚至基于一些玩家数据，但目前还没有被广泛接受的关于情绪以及如何在游戏中创造情绪的全面理论或模型——这仅仅是因为有关情绪的基本科学仍在不断变化中。让问题更加复杂的是，许多撰写关于在游戏中创造情绪的文章的人几乎完全是从游戏叙事的角度来写的——将游戏视为小说或电影。这样做会将游戏空间压缩到一条路径，设计师要求玩家在没有重要代理的情况下导航，并使用预先定义的点来显示情绪情况。
Like so much else in game design theory, while these are often based on long experience, lots of thought, and in some cases even some player data, there are no well-grounded, comprehensive theories or models of emotions and how to create them in games that are widely accepted—if only because the basic science around emotions is still in flux. To complicate matters further, many of those who have written about creating emotions in games do so almost exclusively from the point of view of game narrative—treating a game like a novel or movie. Doing so pinches the play-space down to a single path that the designer requires the player to navigate without significant agency and with predefined points to show emotional situations.
虽然有些技巧可以帮助你在游戏中创造情感互动，但你必须在你的游戏中试验这些技巧，并尝试激发玩家的情感。在游戏中创造情感互动之前，你需要考虑你想让玩家在游戏体验中产生什么样的情感。
While there are techniques that will help you create emotional interactivity in games, you will have to experiment with them for your game and the emotions you are trying to elicit in the players. Before you can create emotional interactivity in a game, you need to consider what sorts of emotions you want as part of the gameplay experience.
情感模型
无需过多探讨情绪的神经学和心理学定义，一种有用且常见的情绪模型（也是少数经过跨文化测试的模型之一 [Russell et al. 1989]）是将情绪沿着两个轴划分：横轴为从负面到正面（从不愉快到愉快，通常称为效价），纵轴为从低能量到高能量（通常称为唤醒）。这就形成了四个象限：高能量和快乐；低能量和快乐；低能量和不快乐；高能量和不快乐。虽然这不是该模型的意图，但有趣的是，这些象限分别对应于中世纪的乐观、冷静、忧郁和胆汁质体液（见图4.7）。在这些象限中，可以放置各种各样的情绪，从明显的情绪，如愤怒、喜悦、恐惧和满足，到更微妙的情绪，如贪婪、嫉妒、同情、喜悦和顺从（Sellers 2013）。
Without going into the neurological and psychological definitions of emotions too much, one useful and common model of emotions (and one of the few that has been tested cross-culturally [Russell et al. 1989]) is one that divides emotions along two axes: negative to positive (unpleasant to pleasant, often called valence) along the horizontal axis, and low-energy to high-energy (often called arousal) along the vertical axis. This creates four quadrants: high-energy and happy; low-energy and happy; low-energy and unhappy; and high-energy and unhappy. Though not the intent of the model, it’s interesting that these quadrants correspond to the medieval humors of sanguine, phlegmatic, melancholy, and choleric, respectively (see Figure 4.7). Within these quadrants, it’s possible to place a wide variety of emotions, from the obvious ones like anger, joy, fear, and contentment to more nuanced ones like greed, jealousy, compassion, delight, and resignation (Sellers 2013).
图 4.7情绪的双轴模型。这导致了包括罗素的环形模型（Russell 1980）和塞勒斯的多层环形模型（Sellers 2013）在内的模型
Figure 4.7 The two-axis model of emotions. This leads to models including Russell’s circumplex (Russell 1980) and Sellers’ multilayered circumplex (Sellers 2013)
这至少可以为你提供一个粗略的指南，让你开始思考你可能想要在游戏中加入的不同情感。为了将它们融入情感互动中，你可以将情感视为玩家动机的伴侣：我们的情感实际上是我们对自己想要的东西的感觉（或者，在负价情感的情况下，是我们不想要的东西）。
This at least gives you a rough guide to start thinking about different emotions you might want to include in a game. To build them into emotional interactions, you can consider emotions to be companions to player motivations: our emotions are in effect how we feel about what we want (or, in the case of negative-valenced emotions, what we don’t want).
考虑这些动机的一种方法是按照心理学家亚伯拉罕·马斯洛的需求层次理论（Maslow 1968）。这些动机的范围从“最低”和最直接的动机到“最高”和最长期的动机，如表 4.1所示。（这些时间尺度与此处描述的交互循环的时间尺度相对应。）
One way to consider these motivations is in terms of the psychologist Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (Maslow 1968). These range from the “lowest” and most immediate motivations to the “highest” and longest-term ones, as shown in Table 4.1. (These time scales correspond with the time scale of the interactive loops described here.)
Table 4.1 Maslovian Motivations and Related Emotions
马斯洛层次 Maslow’s Level |
示例动机 Example Motivations |
情绪的例子 Examples of Emotions |
贡献（自我实现） Contribution (self-actualization) |
超越自我，领导并服务于群体 Looking beyond yourself, leading and serving a group |
同情、团结、愤怒、敬畏、喜悦、绝望、顺从、谦卑 Compassion, unity, wrath, awe, joy, despair, resignation, humility |
技能和成就（技能-尊重） Skill and attainment (skill-esteem) |
技能、专业价值、成就 Skill, professional value, accomplishment |
胜利、荣誉、内疚、勇气、满足、自豪、悔恨、怜悯 Victory, honor, guilt, courage, fulfillment, pride, remorse, pity |
社会（归属感） Social (belonging) |
朋友、家人、包容、团体成员、身份 Friends, family, inclusion, group membership, identity |
同情、羞耻、嫉妒、友谊、仇恨、蔑视、接受 Sympathy, shame, jealously, friendship, hatred, contempt, acceptance |
安全和物体（安全） Security and objects (safety) |
获取、准备、庇护、保护 Acquisition, preparation, shelter, protection |
喜悦、希望、羡慕、失望、好玩、安定、不稳定 Delight, hope, envy, disappointed, playful, settled, unstable |
身体的（生理的） Physical (physiological) |
食物、水、人类接触、新奇事物、避免疼痛或伤害 Food, water, human contact, novelty, avoiding pain or harm |
吸引、愉悦、厌恶、愤怒、恐惧、惊讶、疲劳 Attraction, pleasure, disgust, anger, fear, surprise, fatigue |
此表仅供参考，而非完整列表。此处的想法是，当您确定希望成为游戏体验一部分的情感类型时，您可以考虑它们与哪种动机相关，然后弄清楚如何在游戏中创建支持这些动机的情况和系统。或者，如果您查看游戏并了解最常见的游戏内动机类型，您将能够预测玩家可能会体验到哪种情感。（请注意，这些游戏内动机通常与玩家自己的游戏外动机不同。有关更多信息，请参阅第 6 章。）
This table is meant to be a guide, not a complete list. The idea here is that as you identify the kinds of emotions that you want to be part of the gameplay experience, you can consider what sort of motivations they relate to and then figure out how to create situations and systems that support those motivations in your game. Alternatively, if you look at your game and see what kinds of in-game motivations are most common, you will be able to predict what kinds of emotions the players are likely to experience. (Note that these in-game motivations are often different from the player’s own out-of-game motivations. For more on this, see Chapter 6.)
例如，如果您的游戏是关于一个不断面临不死生物威胁的角色，那么玩家的情感投入将源于对即时身体需求和安全的动机，从而产生恐惧、厌恶、惊讶，甚至希望或失望等感觉。基于此，您的游戏不太可能产生友谊、同情或复仇的体验（尽管如果您加入社交元素（例如，拯救其他人），您可能会产生这些体验），或者如果玩家体验与技能相关的动机，则不太可能产生胜利或勇气的感觉。要超越主要情绪（愤怒、恐惧、愉悦等），转向更微妙的情绪，您需要为玩家提供能够产生匹配动机的情况。
For example, if your game is about a character who is constantly in peril against waves of undead, the emotional engagement your player will have will arise out of motivations for immediate physical needs and safety, resulting in feelings like fear, disgust, surprise, and possibly hope or disappointment. Based on this, your game is unlikely to engender experiences of friendship, compassion, or revenge—though you might get those if you include a social component (for example, someone else to be saved)—or feelings of victory or courage if the player experiences skill-related motivations. To move beyond the primary emotions (anger, fear, pleasure, and so on) to the more subtle ones, you need to provide the player with situations that create matching motivations.
语境
创造情感互动的第一个技巧是创造情境，即营造一种氛围，让玩家在玩游戏时感受到你想要的感觉。这对玩家很有帮助，因为如果你已经设置好了舞台，他们会更容易感受到恐惧、胜利、希望、神秘等等。你可以通过精心设计游戏的呈现方式来做到这一点：颜色、灯光、镜头角度、音乐和场景。如果游戏发生在阳光明媚的日子，游乐设施色彩鲜艳，从上往下看，那么游戏在游乐园中的感觉会与发生在半夜雷雨天，光线昏暗，色彩稀少，镜头角度从地面向上看，游戏的感觉会大不相同。通过这种方式营造氛围，你可以告诉玩家他们可以期待什么样的体验，并让他们为游戏过程中你想让他们感受到的情感做好准备。
The first technique for creating emotional interactivity is to create the context—that is, create the atmosphere for how you want the players to feel as they play. This helps the players, as they will be more amenable to feeling fear, victory, hope, mystery, and so on if you have already set the stage. You can do this by carefully creating the game’s presentation: the colors, lighting, camera angles, music, and setting. A game set in an amusement park will feel very different if it takes place on a sunny day with bright shiny colors on the attractions and viewed from looking down from above than if it takes place in a thunderstorm in the middle of the night, with dimly viewed shapes in low lighting and few colors, with camera angles looking up from the ground. Just by creating the mood this way, you tell the players a lot about the kind of experience they can expect and prime them for the emotions you want them to feel as part of gameplay.
现状与目标
除了背景之外，要创造潜在的情感体验，作为设计师的你必须为玩家提供对他们有意义的与动机相关的目标，如上所述。这通常是他们想要获得、保持或避免的某些对象或情况。创造一个机会，让玩家可以选择努力获得与不同马斯洛动机水平相对应的东西（即身体属性、想要的东西、社会地位、技能或团体奖励），从而激发与每个级别相对应的情感。同样，通过将玩家的生命、财产、朋友、自尊或团体置于危险之中，你可以迅速产生与这些威胁相对应的情感——在每种情况下，实现或避免潜在的结局也会产生相应的情感（胜利、失望、孤独、融入等等）。
Beyond the context, to create potential emotional experiences, you as the designer have to provide motivation-related goals for the players that are meaningful to them, as described above. This is often some object or situation that they want to attain, keep, or prevent. Creating an opportunity where a player can, by choice, work to attain something corresponding to the different Maslovian motivational levels (that is, a physical attribute, desired object, social status, skill, or group reward) opens up the emotions corresponding to each of those levels. Similarly, by putting at risk the player’s life, possessions, friends, esteem, or group, you can quickly engender the emotions that correspond to such threats—and in each case the attainment or avoidance of the potential end has resulting emotions as well (victory, disappointment, loneliness, inclusion, and so on).
玩家必须真正关心你设定的目标，至少在游戏的背景下。他们对此的感受将与他们所处的情境相对应。面对，其严重程度将与玩家赋予该情况的重要性相匹配。这里重要的是要记住魔法圈：游戏中发生的动机和情感可能与玩家实际玩游戏的动机几乎没有对应关系。例如，玩家可能不希望他们的城市在游戏中被摧毁，但如果发生了这种情况，他们的情绪将主要与游戏的其余部分一起留在魔法圈中。然而，游戏对他们来说越真实，这些情绪就越会渗透到他们生活的其他方面。就像当书中或电影中受人喜爱的角色死去时，即使他们的生活完全是虚构的，这也会对玩家在虚构世界的魔法圈中度过的时间之外产生强烈的情感影响。
The player must truly care about the goals you set up, at least within the context of the game. The kinds of emotions they feel about this will correspond to the kind of situation they face, and the magnitude will match the importance they have ascribed to the situation. It is important here to remember the magic circle: the motivations and emotions occur in the game and may have little correspondence to the player’s own motivations for actually playing the game. For example, a player may not want their city to be destroyed in your game, but if it happens their emotions will mostly remain in the circle with the rest of the game. However, the more real the game has become to them, the more those emotions will leak out into the rest of their lives. Just as when a beloved character in a book or movie dies, even though their life was entirely fictional, this can have strong emotional effects outside the time players spend within the magic circle of the fictional world.
挑战
在游戏设计方面，情感互动的挑战在于构建系统，创造玩家拥有你想要的那种与动机相关的情感体验的情境——但不要将游戏缩小到玩家必须走的一条路径，而你作为设计师则诉诸于需要线性故事的场景。一如既往，你越能专注于创建系统，让玩家的动机和情感因他们与游戏的互动而产生，而不是创建玩家别无选择只能体验的特定内容，游戏体验就会越有效、越强大。
In terms of game design, the challenge with emotional interactivity is to construct systems that create situations in which the player has the kind of motivation-related and thus emotional experience that you want—but without narrowing the game down to a single path that the player must tread and where you as the designer resort to set pieces that require a linear story. As always, the more you can focus on creating systems out of which the player’s motivations and emotions emerge due to their interaction with the game rather than creating specific content that the player has no choice but to experience, the more effective and more robust the gameplay experience will be.
尽管如此，我们看到更多非互动过场动画向玩家展示预设的“情感时刻”，而不是让他们通过系统性游戏玩法发现这种情感，是因为过场动画或单路径内容仍然更可靠。如果你认为自己的角色是作者，在故事的某个特定地方传递某种情感，那么这是有道理的。另一方面，如果你认为自己的角色是为玩家创造条件，让他们通过与游戏中的元素互动并因此体验情感来寻找游戏内的动机，那么你的情感精准度可能会降低，但你会为玩家创造更具互动性、从而更个性化、更真实的体验。
That said, the reason we see more non-interactive cut-scenes showing a preset “emotional moment” to the player rather than letting them discover this emotion via systemic gameplay is because the cut-scenes or single-path content are still more reliable. If you see your role as that of an author delivering a particular emotion at a particular place in your story, this makes sense. If, on the other hand, you see your role as that of setting up the conditions for your player to find in-game motivations by interacting with elements in the game and experiencing emotions as a result, then you may have less emotional precision, but you will generate a more interactive, and thus more personal, authentic experience for the player.
注意事项
创造情感互动并不容易，也不总是可以预测的。有时玩家会错过机会或不为目标投入意义，因此他们错过了动机，从而错过了预期的情感。在其他情况下，他们的反应可能比你预期的还要强烈（有关这方面的更多信息，请参阅本章后面的下一节“文化互动”）。在某些情况下，玩家可能会体验到与你预期不同的动机，从而产生不同的情感，这会改变他们体验游戏的整体方式。
Creating emotional interactivity is not easy, quick, or even always predictable. Sometimes players miss an opportunity or do not invest meaning in a goal, and so they miss the motivation and thus the emotion intended. In other cases, they may react even more strongly than you anticipated (see more on this in the next section “Cultural Interactivity,” later in this chapter). And in some cases, players may experience different motivations and thus different emotions than you anticipate, which changes how they experience your game overall.
此外，构建情感参与的系统和情境需要时间，玩家也需要时间来感知、投入动机并解决他们在游戏过程中产生的情绪。在某些情况下，玩家可能需要几个小时甚至更长时间（几天甚至几周）才能完成整个情绪周期。一般来说，动机和由此产生的情绪在马斯洛层次结构中越高，产生和解决所需的时间就越长，但玩家在情绪中停留的时间也就越长。
In addition, it takes time to construct the systems and situations for emotional engagement, and it takes time for players to perceive, invest motivationally in, and resolve the emotions they feel as a result of gameplay. In some cases, it may take hours or longer—days or even weeks—for players to work through a full emotional cycle. In general, the higher the motivation and resulting emotion is on Maslow’s hierarchy, the longer it will take to engender and resolve, but also the longer it will stay with the player.
作为游戏设计师，我们显然还有很多关于如何使用情感作为交互循环需要学习，但这显然也是一个可以探索创造更具吸引力的游戏的肥沃领域。
As game designers, we clearly still have a lot to learn about using emotions as interactive loops, but this is also clearly a fertile area to explore to create more engaging games.
文化互动
Cultural Interactivity
反思性关注的另一端是我们对文化价值观和个人在文化中的地位进行的长期对话。这包括回顾历史，看看我们作为民族是谁，我们作为个体来自哪里，以及审视我们当前的文化背景。通过游戏，我们可以反思我们过去和现在的价值观与我们希望的价值观相比究竟如何。这些对话可能需要数年才能完成，因为文化在身份、成员资格、权利、繁荣等问题上苦苦挣扎。游戏往往不会持续那么长时间，但它们仍然可以以互动形式捕捉其中一些潮流和对话，使玩家能够反思一生的问题并从中受益。
At the far end of reflective attention are the very long-term conversations we have about our cultural values and our individual place in our culture. This includes looking back at history to see who we have been as peoples and where we have come from as individuals, as well as looking at our current cultural context. Using games, we can reflect on what our past and current values may actually be compared to what we would like them to be. These conversations may take years to complete, as cultures wrestle with questions of identity, membership, rights, prosperity, and on and on. Games do not tend to last that long, but they can nevertheless capture some of these currents and conversations in an interactive format that enables and benefits from the player’s reflections of lifetime-spanning issues.
提供这种长期文化参与的游戏并不多，但也有一些。一个值得注意的例子是Brenda Romero 的《Train》。在这个看似简单的游戏中，玩家将小黄色桩子装到火车车厢上，并尝试将它们移动到目的地。每个玩家的目的地在游戏开始时都是未知的，但后来会揭晓。通过这种和其他游戏机制，游戏揭示了它的本质：小黄色桩子是人——犹太人——玩家试图让火车将他们带到纳粹德国的集中营。
There are not many games providing this kind of long-baseline cultural engagement, but there are a few. One notable example is Train by Brenda Romero. In this seemingly simple game, players load small yellow pegs onto train cars and try to move them to their destinations. Each player’s destination is not known at the start of the game but becomes revealed later on. Through this and other gameplay mechanisms, the game reveals its true nature: the little yellow pegs are people—Jews—and the players are trying to get their trains to take them to concentration camps in Nazi Germany.
这款启示性游戏对玩家甚至观看他人玩游戏的人所产生的情感、社会和文化影响无论怎样强调都不为过。许多人在发现游戏的真正本质后会感到厌恶（需要注意的是，游戏的本质是以微妙的方式传达的，比如透明游戏板下有一层碎玻璃，让人想起1938 年德国犹太人遭受的“水晶之夜”或“碎玻璃之夜”迫害）。有些人泪流满面，因为他们意识到只要玩游戏，他们就参与了如此巨大恐怖的模拟。有些人拒绝离开游戏，直到他们设法把每节火车车厢里的每一根钉子都拿出来。有些人在意识到自己在玩什么后会试图颠覆游戏的目标；其他人看起来很恶心，或者好像接触了有毒的东西。
It is difficult to overstate the emotional, social, and cultural impact that this revelatory game has on those who play it—and even those who watch others play it. Many people recoil in disgust as they discover the true nature of the game (which, it should be noted, is telegraphed in subtle ways, such as the bed of broken glass lying under the clear game board, reminiscent of the Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass persecution of German Jews in 1938). Some people have broken down in tears as they have realized that just by playing, they have been complicit in a simulation of such a great horror. Some refuse to leave the game until they manage to get every last peg out of every train car. Some try to subvert the game’s goals once they realize what they are playing; others look nauseated, or as if they have touched something toxic.
作为一种互动且引人入胜的体验，《火车》展示了游戏如何成为文化互动的载体，尽管最终令人厌恶。玩家能够融入他们的历史和文化，并通过作为文化模型而创建的游戏系统与文化互动。在这种情况下，玩家不仅重演了大屠杀的恐怖，而且还面临着一个随时相关的问题：由于规则故意包含程序空白，玩家必须决定如何进行，因此他们参与了游戏的创建，而不仅仅是玩游戏。规则也没有揭示游戏的结局。因此，玩家必须根据自己的行为面对的问题是，我们中的任何人都会在多大程度上盲目地“遵守规则”，而不问“结果如何？”这是一个游戏创造对话并增加文化互动持续循环的典型例子。
As an interactive and engaging, if ultimately repulsive, experience, Train shows how games can be a vehicle for cultural interactivity. Players are able to inhabit their history and culture and interact with the culture via the game systems created as the model for the culture. In this case, players are not only reenacting the horrors of the Holocaust, they are confronting an issue relevant at any time: since the rules purposefully contain procedural gaps where the players must decide how to proceed, they become complicit in creating the game, not just playing. Nor do the rules reveal the end of the game. As a result, the question the players must confront based on their own actions is one of how far any of us will blindly “follow the rules” without asking “to what end?” This is a prime example of a game creating a conversation and adding to an ongoing loop of cultural interactivity.
这种互动在游戏中是可能的，而其他任何媒介都不可能实现这种互动。通过与重要的文化对话互动并体验这些对话，玩家能够反思游戏中呈现的文化方向：你是否始终服从权威、遵守规则？虽然提出这些问题的机制建立在认知、社交和情感互动的基础上，并且与认知、社交和情感互动的机制类似，但正是探索文化对话的长远背景让这种互动与众不同。
This sort of interaction is possible in games in ways that would be impossible in any other medium. By being able to interact with and experience significant cultural conversations, players are able to reflect on the cultural directions presented in the game: do you follow authority, follow the rules, always? While the mechanisms used to ask such questions are built on and similar to those used for cognitive, social, and emotional interactivity, it is the long-arc context of exploring cultural conversations that sets this type of interactivity apart.
通过这种互动形式，玩家还可以模糊围绕游戏的魔法圈的界限。当玩家继续在游戏之外讨论游戏时（例如，在知道《火车》是什么之后，玩它是否符合道德规范？），他们也会继续就所呈现的问题进行总体文化讨论。
By means of this form of interactivity, players are also able to blur the lines of the magic circle surrounding the game. As players continue the conversation about the game outside its play (for example, is it morally right to play Train, once you know what it is?), they also continue the overarching cultural conversation about the issues presented.
玩家还可以通过其他游戏外的方式帮助创造文化互动，例如粉丝活动、角色扮演、游戏论坛和深思熟虑的批评。例如，一些玩家通过游戏《生化奇兵》了解了客观主义问题哲学的各个方面，这反过来又引发了与其他玩家的许多文化互动。这些活动和对话并非偶然或偶然：它们是在游戏中设计的更大的互动循环，并从中分离出来，即使在实际游戏结束后仍会继续进行。这是游戏设计的一个新兴领域，但值得更多关注。
Players are also able to help create cultural interactivity by other extra-game means, such as fandom activities, cosplay, game forums, and thoughtful criticism. Some players have, for example, been introduced to the various sides of the problematic philosophy of Objectivism via the game Bioshock, which has in turn spawned many cultural interactions with other players. These activities and conversations are not accidental or incidental: they are a larger interactive loop designed within the game and spun off from it to continue even after the actual gameplay is completed. This is a nascent area of game design but one that deserves more attention.
交互循环中的流程
Flow in Interactive Loops
任何关于互动性和参与度的讨论，如果不涉及米哈里·契克森米哈赖 (1990) 首次提出的心流理论，都是不完整的。心流理论通俗地被描述为“进入状态”或“心流”的感觉。
Any discussion of interactivity and engagement would be incomplete without addressing the theory of flow first articulated by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1990). This is colloquially described as the feeling of being “in the zone” or “in the flow.”
回想一下，投入的特点是对手头的任务保持警觉和专注，能够忽略无关的输入，并且通常表现良好（同时不打扰表现良好的意识）。心流具有许多相同的特征：当一个人处于心流状态时，他们会参与一项具有挑战性的活动，并带有一些不确定性（不是死记硬背的任务），他们有可以理解的目标，并得到明确的反馈。他们的注意力集中但不紧张。他们可能会忘记时间，但与投入的描述一样，他们通常不会失去表现良好的意识。在这种状态下，个人专注于他们的工作，而不会对此感到不自在；他们可能会描述自己与工作“融为一体”的感觉。（在描述心流时，这种语言通常很难避免。）最终，正在执行的任务本身就变得有意义。它可能以明确的功利目标开始，但在某种程度上，保持表演心流状态本身就成为一个有意义的目标。
Recall that engagement is characterized by being alert and attentive to the task at hand, being able to ignore extraneous input, and generally performing well (along with the non-intrusive awareness of performing well). Flow has many of the same characteristics: when a person is in a flow state, they are engaged in a challenging activity with some uncertainty (not a rote, memorized task), they have understandable goals, and are getting clear feedback. Their attention is focused but not stressed. They may lose track of time, but as with the description of engagement, they generally do not lose the awareness that they are performing well. In this state, the individual is absorbed in their work and not self-conscious about it; they may describe feeling that they “are one” with the work. (This sort of language is often difficult to avoid when describing flow.) Ultimately, the task being performed becomes meaningful in and of itself. It may begin with clear utilitarian goals, but at some point maintaining the performative flow state becomes a meaningful goal itself.
心流通常被描述为具有“通道”。这是一种可视化玩家参与度和心流状态的有效方法。如图4.8所示，如果存在与初学者技能相称的小挑战，心流状态将从兴趣开始；如果既没有挑战也没有技能，个人就会感到冷漠，不再参与。随着挑战和技能的增加，心流会增加随着任务的挑战性和个人技能的提高。如果挑战性稍微超过个人所能承受的范围，他们就会兴奋；然后，如果挑战继续增加，个人就会感到压力和焦虑，因为他们会跌落到耶基斯-多德森曲线的右侧（参见图 4.5）。但是，如果他们的技能对于当前的挑战来说太高，他们一开始会感到放松，然后很快就会感到无聊。随着个人在兴奋和放松之间循环（如正弦线抽象所示），他们仍然处于流通道的金发姑娘区：他们参与其中，学习，建立手头任务的心理模型，并表现出色。他们在心理上变得沉浸其中——仍然兴奋并专注于他们的任务，但通常会忽略外界刺激——并且可能会忘记时间。
Flow is often described as having a “channel.” This is a useful way to visualize the player’s state of engagement and flow. As shown in Figure 4.8, the flow state begins with interest if there is a small challenge commensurate with a beginner’s skill; if neither challenge nor skill are present, the individual experiences apathy and is no longer engaged. Flow increases as both the task’s challenge and the individual’s skill increase. If the challenge increases just a little more than the individual is comfortable with, they become aroused; then, if the increase in challenge continues, the individual becomes stressed and anxious, as they fall off the right side of the Yerkes-Dodson curve (refer to Figure 4.5). However, if their skill is too high for the current challenge, they becomes relaxed at first and then soon bored. As the individual cycles between arousal and relaxation (as shown abstractly by the sinusoidal line), they remain in the Goldilocks zone of the flow channel: they are engaged, learning, building their mental model of the task at hand, and performing well. They become psychologically immersed—still aroused and attentive to their task but generally ignoring extraneous stimuli—and may lose track of time.
图 4.8随着挑战和技能的增加，焦虑和无聊感之间的心流状态可视化
Figure 4.8 A visualization of the flow state as it occurs between the feelings of anxiety and boredom, as both challenge and skill increase
心流通道的另一个特点是，它本质上捕捉到了个人进步的欲望——学习更多知识并接受新挑战。在任何引人入胜的任务中（因此在任何成功的游戏中），个人都会体验到上述各种互动带来的神经化学奖励：互动和成就最终会让人感到愉悦，因为多巴胺、血清素以及潜在的催产素和内啡肽的释放。然而，他们很快就会习惯这些感觉，这一过程被称为习惯化，而之前令人愉悦的东西不再足以产生相同的感觉。在任何涉及注意力、互动和目标的任务中，这种自然的习惯化会驱使个人继续学习更多知识并面对更大的挑战。这种激发学习是个人在耶基斯-多德森曲线的右上方和心流通道的顶部边缘“冲浪”的地方。作为不同持续时间的交互周期堆叠的一部分（见下文），他们可能会回到放松状态而不会脱离心流。
One other feature of the flow channel is that it inherently captures the individual’s desire to progress—to learn more and take on new challenges. In any engaging task (and thus in any successful game), the individual experiences the neurochemical rewards described above as the result of the various kinds of interactivity: interactions and accomplishments feel pleasurable ultimately because of the release of dopamine, serotonin, and potentially oxytocin and endorphins. However, they soon get used to these feelings, a process known as habituation, and what was delightful earlier is no longer sufficient to create the same feelings. In any tasks involving attention, interaction, and goals, this natural habituation drives the individual forward to learn more and face greater challenges. This aroused learning is where the individual is “surfing” just at the top-right of the Yerkes-Dodson curve, and right at the top edge of the flow channel. They may fall back toward relaxation without breaking out of flow as part of the stacking of interaction cycles of various durations (see below).
除了呈现清晰且有用的人类参与模型之外，心流的概念价值在于它如何强调体验本身就是目的。这是 Csikszentmihalyi 和本书第 3 章讨论的自成目的体验。玩家首先使用游戏提供的交互类型，包括以短期和长期认知交互表达的为他们设定的目标。然而，如果好玩的心流体验持续下去，在某个时候玩家在技能和挑战方面取得了足够的进步，并开始设定自己的目标。此时，他们位于图 4.8所示的心流通道的右上部分；他们不受外力驱使，不追求更大的挑战或技能，而是基于自己创造和驱动的目标和互动而保持参与。并非每款游戏都提供自成目标，或者需要提供。许多玩家能够在具有相对简单的动作/反馈和短期认知交互循环的游戏中进入心流状态，例如俄罗斯方块、三消游戏等。那些提供足够深的内部模型来支持足够的心理模型让玩家创建自己的自成目标的游戏通常也是玩得时间最长、最终最受欢迎的游戏。
Aside from presenting a clear and helpful model of human engagement, the conceptual value of flow is how it highlights an experience becoming its own end. This is the autotelic experience discussed by Csikszentmihalyi and in Chapter 3 of this book. The player begins by using the types of interactivity provided by the game, including goals set out for them expressed in short-term and long-term cognitive interactions. If the playful flow experience lasts, however, at some point the player has progressed enough in skill and challenge and begins setting their own goals. At this point, they exist in the upper-right part of the flow channel depicted in Figure 4.8; they are not driven forward by external forces for greater challenge or skill but remain engaged based on goals and interactions that they create and drive themselves. Not every game provides for autotelic goals—or needs to. Many players are able to enter a flow state in games with relatively simple action/feedback and short-term cognitive interaction loops—Tetris, match-three games, and so on Those that do provide internal models that are deep enough to support a mental model sufficient for players to create their own autotelic goals are also those that are typically played the longest and, ultimately, loved the most.
交互循环的时间尺度视图
A Time-Scale View of Interactive Loops
我们讨论过的各种形式的互动和参与——神经化学、行动/反馈、认知、社交、情感和文化——在注意力方面从反射性到执行性再到反思性各不相同。它们的速度也从非常快到非常慢：一个完整的循环不到一秒钟，而一个完整的反思性互动则需要几小时、几天或更长时间（参见图 4.6）。
The various forms of interactivity and engagement that we have discussed—neurochemical, action/feedback, cognitive, social, emotional, and cultural—vary from reflexive to executive to reflective in their attentional aspect. They also range from very fast to very slow: less than one second for a complete loop to hours, days, or longer for a complete reflective interaction (refer to Figure 4.6).
这些循环也会相互叠加，每个循环在不同的时间尺度上工作，以提供更具吸引力的互动体验。在典型的游戏中，多个互动循环会同时运行，共同创造更具吸引力的整体体验。那些速度更快的循环通常也被认为意义不那么深刻；快节奏的射击游戏可能非常吸引人，但它并不是深思熟虑的载体。需要更长期的反思性社交、情感和文化互动才能真正开始在游戏中创造深度意义。
These loops also stack on top of each other, each working at different time scales, to provide a more fully engaging interactive experience. In a typical game, multiple interactive loops are operating at the same time, working together to create a more engaging experience overall. Those loops that are faster are also typically perceived as being less deeply meaningful; a fast-paced shooter can be highly engaging, but it’s not a vehicle for deep considered thought. It takes the longer-term reflective social, emotional, and cultural interactivity to really begin to create depth of meaning in a game.
例如，在轻度休闲的三消游戏中，玩家在解决谜题时主要使用动作/反馈和短期认知循环以及较长的重复性短期认知循环。游戏的设计并不适合长期战略思考，更不用说任何情感、社交或文化互动或严肃意义了。在在线战争游戏中，玩家仍然参与动作/反馈交互循环，但他们也会（在较长时间内）关注战术、战略和社交互动。
For example, in a light and casual match-three game, the player is primarily using action/feedback and short-term cognitive loops along with a longer recurring short-term cognitive loop as they solve puzzles. The game’s design does not lend itself to long-term strategic thinking, much less having any emotional, social, or cultural interaction or serious meaning. In an online war game, the players are still involved in action/feedback interactive loops, but they also focus (over longer periods of time) on tactical, strategic, and social interactions.
结果是，主要使用更快互动形式的游戏会给人“更轻松”的体验——更容易上手和放下，对玩家的持久价值也较低。主要使用更长时间、“更重”互动形式的游戏（长期认知、社交、情感或文化）会保持较长时间的吸引力，玩家可能会多年忠诚于它们。这在当今的手机游戏市场中很明显，快速、浅显的游戏玩法占据了市场主导地位，只有 38% 的玩家在开始游戏一个月后仍在玩游戏——其余的玩家已经离开游戏了（Dmytryshyn 2014）。
The result is that games that use primarily faster forms of interactivity are experienced as “lighter”—easier to pick up and put down and of less lasting value to the player. Those that use primarily longer, “heavier” forms of interactivity (long-term cognitive, social, emotional, or cultural) are games that remain engaging for longer periods of time and to which players may remain loyal for years. This is evident in the market for mobile games today, where games with fast, shallow gameplay dominate the market, and where only 38% percent of players are still playing a game one month after starting—and the rest having moved on (Dmytryshyn 2014).
这种将不同类型的游戏玩法堆叠在不同时间范围内的概念以前就已经被其他游戏设计师注意到。Halo 2和Halo 3的首席游戏设计师 Jaime Griesemer 因Halo中所谓的“30 秒乐趣”理念而闻名(Kietzmann 2011)。这是一次较长的采访评论的一部分，在采访中 Griesemer 表示“Halo 战斗的秘诀”是“在 3 分钟循环内的 30 秒循环内再套上 3 秒循环，这个循环总是不同的，所以你每次都能获得独特的体验。”即使在快节奏的动作游戏中，每个规模都会发生不同类型的互动。较短的周期更侧重于即时事物，例如“站在哪里、何时射击、何时躲避手榴弹”，而较长的周期则更注重战术（从而侧重于认知）。通过堆叠这些交互循环、在各个层面构建参与度以及改变每个循环提供的体验，游戏设计师能够提供真正引人入胜且令人难忘的游戏体验。
This notion of stacking different kinds of gameplay with different time horizons has been noted by other game designers in the past. Jaime Griesemer, lead game designer on Halo 2 and Halo 3, is noted for what has been called the idea of “30 seconds of fun” in Halo (Kietzmann 2011). This was part of a longer interview comment in which Griesemer said that “the secret to Halo’s combat” was that “you have a 3-second loop inside of a 30-second loop inside of a 3-minute loop that is always different, so you get a unique experience every time.” Different kinds of interactivity are happening at each scale, even in a fast-paced action game. The shorter cycles are more focused on moment-to-moment things like “where to stand, when to shoot, when to dive away from a grenade,” while the longer ones are more tactically (and thus cognitively) focused. By stacking these interaction loops, building engagement at every scale, and varying the experience that each provides, the game designers were able to provide a truly engaging and memorable set of gameplay experiences.
核心循环
游戏设计师经常谈论游戏的核心循环，其大致定义为“玩家大部分时间都在做的事情”或“玩家在任何特定时间都在做的事情”。基于对本文讨论的不同交互循环的理解，我们可以将这个定义做得更精确。与任何参与循环一样，如图4.4中所示，游戏的核心循环执行图 4.9中所示的循环。玩家形成意图并执行操作，为游戏提供输入，如上所述。这会导致游戏内部状态发生变化，游戏会向玩家提供有关其操作是否成功或其他影响的反馈。通常，这种反馈还会向玩家提供有关其游戏进度的信息或其他奖励或另一种行动号召，以保持玩家对游戏的参与度。他们的进度或奖励所带来的新能力鼓励玩家形成新的目标或意图，然后循环再次开始。
Game designers often speak of a game’s core loops, loosely defined as “what the player does most of the time” or “what the player is doing at any given time.” We can make this definition more exacting, based on the understanding of the different interactive loops discussed here. As with any of these engagement loops, and as shown at a high level in Figure 4.4, the game’s core loop or loops carry out the cycle shown in Figure 4.9. The player forms an intent and carries out an action, providing input to the game, as discussed above. This causes a change to the game’s internal state, and the game provides feedback to the player as to the success or other effects of their actions. Typically this feedback also provides the player with information about their progression in the game or another reward or another form of call to action to keep the player engaged with the game. The new abilities afforded by their progression or reward encourage the player to form a new goal or intent, and the cycle begins again.
图 4.9核心循环的抽象图。这映射到玩家在游戏中的主要动作。请参阅第 7 章中的更多详细描述
Figure 4.9 An abstract diagram of a core loop. This is mapped onto the player’s primary actions in the game. See more detailed descriptions in Chapter 7
正如我们在讨论交互循环时所看到的，这个循环可以在不同的注意力水平和不同的时间长度下发生。游戏的核心循环由游戏的设计决定，特别是由哪种形式的交互对玩家参与度最重要决定。这几乎总是包括低级动作/反馈循环，因为这是玩家和游戏真正交互的地方：玩家执行诸如按下按键、移动鼠标或点击屏幕之类的动作，游戏会通过反馈做出响应。
As we have seen in discussing interactive loops, this cycle can take place at many different levels of attention and over different lengths of time. A game’s core loops are determined by the game’s design and, in particular, by what form of interaction is the most significant for player engagement. This almost always includes the low-level action/feedback loop, as this is where the player and the game truly interface: the player performs an action like pressing a key, moving a mouse, or tapping a screen, and the game responds with feedback in acknowledgment.
然而，这种动作/反馈循环可能不是游戏+玩家系统中最重要的循环。游戏设计决定了哪些类型的互动需要玩家的主要关注，然后这些互动就形成了核心循环。在游戏中移动可能是主要点（通常与跳跃、射击等一起），也可能只是达到目的的一种手段。如果玩家主要关注建造建筑物、发现技术、管理帝国或建立关系，那么这些互动形式将为游戏创建核心循环。（您将在第 7 章中看到有关此主题的更多信息。）
This action/feedback loop may not be the most significant loop in the game+player system, however. The game design determines which types of interaction demand the player’s primary focus, and those then form the core loops. Moving around in the game may be the primary point (often along with jumping, shooting, and so on), or it may be only a means to an end. If the player is mainly focused on constructing buildings, discovering technologies, administering an empire, or building relationships, those forms of interaction will create the core loops for the game. (You will see more on this topic in Chapter 7.)
参与周期
堆叠不同持续时间的不同交互循环可以创建高唤醒和低唤醒的自然周期。这对于参与和学习非常重要，因为它使玩家能够体验挑战和紧张的时刻，然后放松和巩固。它还可以防止注意力疲劳，因为玩家无法跟上向他们抛出的所有事情，他们的参与度和表现会受到影响。
Stacking different interaction loops with different durations creates natural cycles of times of high and low arousal. This is important for engagement and learning, as it enables the player to experience times of challenge and tension and then relaxation and consolidation. It also prevents attentional fatigue, where the players simply cannot keep up with everything that is being thrown at them, and their engagement and performance suffer.
可以这样想，这就像堆叠具有不同频率的波浪。动作/反馈交互循环持续时间最短，因此“波长”最短，频率最高。只要游戏继续，这些交互循环就会继续。其他类型的交互波长逐渐变长，因此周期也更长（见图4.10）。因此，动作/反馈循环会在整个游戏中持续下去，就像大海中的小波浪在大海巨浪之上，而通过在游戏中有效堆叠短期认知、长期认知以及潜在的社交、情感和文化循环，可以创造紧张和放松的时期。
One way to think of this is like stacking waves with different frequencies. Action/feedback interactivity loops have the shortest duration and thus the shortest “wavelength” and highest frequency. These interactive loops continue as long as play continues. Each of the other types of interactivity have progressively longer wavelengths and so create longer cycles (see Figure 4.10). As a result, action/feedback loops go on throughout the game like small waves in the ocean on top of large ocean rollers, while periods of tension and release are created by effectively stacking short-term cognitive, long-term cognitive, and potentially social, emotional, and cultural loops within the game.
这些堆叠的循环还创造了“节奏和仪式”的时期，正如游戏设计师切尔西·豪 (Chelsea Howe) (2017) 所描述的那样，它们向玩家发出游戏中时间流逝的信号。这些循环可能有助于指示新内容的可用性（例如，每日任务或奖励）、游戏会话的自然开始和停止位置、战斗或修复的时间、游戏中戏剧性弧线中紧张感的上升或释放，或游戏中社交和庆祝节奏等阶段（无论是季节还是升级）。
These stacked cycles also create periods of “rhythm and ritual,” as described by game designer Chelsea Howe (2017), that provide signals to the players of the passing of time within the game. These cycles may help indicate the availability of new content (for example, daily quests or rewards), natural starting and stopping places in a game session, times to battle or repair, the rising or releasing of tension in dramatic arcs within the game, or phases like in-game social and celebratory rhythms (whether seasons or just leveling up).
图 4.10堆叠不同的交互“波长”来创造游戏中的紧张时刻和放松时刻
Figure 4.10 Stacking different “wavelengths” of interaction to create high- and low-tension moments in a game
叙事和互动参与
正如第 3 章所讨论的，叙事是许多游戏的重要组成部分。它充当玩家在游戏中互动的载体，设定背景，并经常为玩家提供要追求的目标。然而，它不是互动的。
As discussed in Chapter 3, narrative is an important component of many games. It acts as a vehicle for the player’s interactions in the game, setting the context and often providing goals for the player to pursue. It is not, however, interactive.
Cook (2012) 指出，游戏叙事形成弧线而非循环。游戏向玩家提供反馈，无论是以文本、NPC 驱动的对话、过场动画还是其他向玩家提供“预处理信息负载”的形式。这些“负载”可以非常有效地向玩家提供有针对性的信息，但它们不允许互动。因此，玩家参与度受到限制。在观看电影（或游戏中的过场动画）时，个人可能会全神贯注于情境和角色，但在叙事中，他们可以做出选择或采取行动；他们没有机会采取有力的行动或恢复能力。在叙事期间，玩家沦为被动的观众。
Cook (2012) noted that game narrative forms arcs instead of loops. The game provides feedback to the player, whether in the form of text, NPC-driven dialog, a cut-scene, or something else that provides “a payload of pre-processed information” to the player. These “payloads” can be highly effective at delivering targeted information to the player, but they do not allow for interactivity. As a result, player engagement is limited. In watching a movie (or a cut-scene in a game), an individual may become engrossed in the situation and characters, but within the narrative they have choices to make or actions to take; they have no opportunity for vigorous action or resilience. The player is reduced to being a passive viewer for the duration of the narration.
许多游戏使用非交互式叙述作为交互式会话的结束：游戏可以通过叙述向玩家介绍任务，让玩家完成任务，然后在任务完成后叙述最终状态。即使玩家做出真正决定或以具有长期后果的方式进行互动的机会有限，这也是构建看似交互式叙述的有效方法。这种格式的风险在于，玩家会逐渐明白开始和结束是预先设定的，他们在中间做出的任何决定（例如，在任务中）都无关紧要。这可能会耗尽玩家做出的任何决定的意义，反而会产生一种徒劳感，从而降低参与度。在以前的公司，我们称其为“吉利根岛问题”，因为电视剧中无论他们做什么，角色在每一集结束时总是被困在岛上。这是编剧确保角色回到岛上的便捷方式他们的起点，但它极大地限制了人物和整体叙事的任何成长或变化。
Many games use non-interactive narrative as bookends to interactive sessions: a game may introduce a mission to the player via narration, allow the player to play out the mission, and then narrate the end-state after it’s complete. This can be an effective way to build a seemingly interactive narrative even though the player has limited opportunities for making real decisions or interacting in ways that have long-term consequences. The risk with this format is that the player comes to understand that the beginning and end are preset, and none of the decisions they make in between (for example, in a mission) really matter. This can drain the meaning from any decisions the player makes and create instead a sense of futility that degrades engagement. At a former company, we called this the “Gilligan’s Island problem,” after the TV show where no matter what they did, the characters always ended up stuck back on their island at the end of each episode. This is a convenient way for the writers to ensure that the characters are back to their starting point, but it significantly limits any growth or change in the characters and the narrative overall.
将互动循环元素与非互动叙事弧线串联起来可以创造引人入胜的整体体验，但这也缺乏可重玩性：一旦玩家浏览了叙事，他就没有什么理由再去回顾它。然而，在那些较少使用叙事作为背景和支架来创造互动系统玩法的游戏中，非互动弧线可以帮助玩家更快地建立游戏的心理模型，从而让他们进入游戏的互动循环部分。
Chaining interactive looped elements together with non-interactive narrative arcs can create an engaging overall experience, but this also suffers from a lack of replayability: once the player has traversed the narrative, he has little reason to revisit it. However, in games that use narrative more sparingly as a context and scaffolding for creating interactive systemic play, the non-interactive arcs can help the player create a mental model of the game more quickly and thus springboard them into the interactively looping parts of the game.
心理负荷和互动预算
Mental Load and the Interactivity Budget
当玩家使用不同类型的循环与游戏互动时，他们会在不同的时间尺度上提供输入并获得反馈，同时涉及不同程度的反射性、执行性和反射性注意处理。但是，任何人在特定时间内能够做到的这些都是有限的。我们的注意力和整体心理资源是有限的。玩家可以同时追踪的敌人数量是有限的，人类大脑可以跟踪的爆炸、对话或谜题部分数量也是有限的，否则就会不堪重负，导致表现和参与度受到影响。这些限制被称为认知负荷，如本章前面所述。一般来说，这是一个人在没有压力或表现下降的情况下可以进行的注意力和脑力劳动量（Sweller 1988）。因为我们在这里包括了玩家与游戏互动的注意力、感知、认知、情感、社交和文化方面，所以我们将这些都归入范围更广的心理负荷之下。
As the player interacts with a game using different types of loops, they provide input and get feedback on different time scales with different amounts of reflexive, executive, and reflective attentional processing involved. However, there are limits to how much of this any person can do at any given time. Our attentional and overall mental resources are limited. There are only so many enemies a player can track simultaneously, only so many explosions or conversations or parts to a puzzle that the human mind can keep track of before becoming overwhelmed and having performance and engagement suffer. These limits are known as cognitive load, as discussed earlier in this chapter. Generally speaking, this is the amount of attention and mental work that an individual can perform without stress or reduced performance (Sweller 1988). Because we are here including attentional, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, social, and cultural aspects in the player’s interactions with a game, we lump these all under the somewhat broader mental load.
心理资源有限，且在玩游戏时让玩家承受心理负担，导致的后果之一是玩家无法关注游戏可能给他们带来的所有问题。什么才是最重要的？
One consequence of having limited mental resources and putting the player under mental load while playing a game is that the player cannot attend to everything a game might potentially throw at them. What takes precedence?
似乎依赖反射性、非自愿性、外源性注意力的互动优先，其次是需要执行性注意力的任务，最后是需要反射性资源的任务。另一种看待这个问题的方式是快驱慢：如果玩家必须躲避快速移动的障碍物或注意出现在他们周边视野中的物体，他们的战略思维甚至战术思维能力就会受到抑制，更不用说反思情绪状况的能力了。这在进化上是合理的，也与经验一致：当出现更紧急的互动时，它需要我们的注意。无论任务是发射来袭的导弹还是在陌生的街道上寻找地址，都是如此；在这两种情况下，其他速度较慢、要求较低和/或需要更多反射性内部资源的互动都会被搁置一旁。也有例外，例如，当某人过于专注于一个问题（使用执行性注意力和控制力）时，他们就会错过清晰的环境信号。尽管如此，在设计游戏来帮助建立玩家参与度和他们的心理模型时，我们需要考虑他们的心理负荷以及他们对不同形式互动的关注程度。
It appears that interactions relying on reflexive, involuntary, exogenous attention get first priority, followed by tasks requiring executive attention, followed last of all by those needing reflective resources. Another way to look at this is that the fast drives out the slow: if a player has to dodge fast-moving obstacles or be aware of objects appearing in their peripheral vision, their abilities to think strategically or even tactically are going to be suppressed, much less their ability to reflect on their emotional situation. This makes evolutionary sense and is consistent with experience: when a more urgent interaction is present, it demands our attention. This is true whether the task is shooting an incoming missile or finding an address on an unfamiliar street; in either case, other interactions that are slower, less demanding, and/or require more reflective internal resources are shoved aside. There are exceptions, as, for example, when someone is concentrating so hard on a problem—using executive attention and control—that they miss clear environmental signals. Nevertheless, it appears that in designing games to help build player engagement and their mental model, we need to take into account their mental load and the degree to which they will attend to different forms of interaction.
图 4.11 Quantic Foundry 的“刺激”游戏与“策略”游戏图表，显示了玩家无法有效操作的明确认知阈值
Figure 4.11 Quantic Foundry’s diagram of “excitement” versus “strategy” games, showing a clear cognitive threshold past which players cannot operate effectively
Quantic Foundry 的工作为这一想法提供了一些额外证据，该公司调查了近 30 万名游戏玩家，以建立他们的动机和行为模型。Quantic Foundry 对这些数据进行了可视化（见图4.11），显示了玩家如何将游戏分为“刺激性”从低到高（快节奏的游戏，有很多动作、惊喜和刺激）以及“策略性”从低到高（速度较慢的游戏，需要提前思考和做出复杂的决策）。左上角（高刺激性/低策略性）的游戏是《反恐精英》和《英雄联盟》等游戏，而右下角（低刺激性/高策略性）的游戏是《欧陆风云》。前者主要依赖快速行动和短期规划（即行动/反馈和短期认知互动），而后者则需要更多的长期认知，只有少量的行动/反馈互动来防止玩家在制定跨世代的帝国建设计划时注意力分散。最值得注意的是右上角的空白：没有玩家在刺激性和策略性方面都评价很高的游戏。这样的游戏对玩家的要求太高，会造成太多的心理负担，从而压倒任何参与的可能性。
Some additional evidence for this idea comes from the work of Quantic Foundry, which has surveyed almost 300,000 game players to build models of their motivation and behavior. One of Quantic Foundry’s visualizations of this data (see Figure 4.11) shows how players have categorized games as being low to high in “excitement” (fast-paced gameplay with lots of action, surprises, and thrills) versus games rated low to high in “strategy” (slower games involving thinking ahead and making complex decisions). In the upper-left corner (high excitement/low strategy) are games like Counter Strike and League of Legends, while in the lower-right corner (low excitement/high strategy) are games like Europa Universalis. The former games rely primarily on fast action and short-term planning (that is, action/feedback and short-term cognitive interactivity), while the latter require far more long-term cognition, with only a small amount of action/feedback interactivity to keep the player’s attention from wandering as they create generation-spanning, empire-building plans. Most notable of all is the emptiness of the upper-right corner: there are no games that players rate highly on both excitement and strategy. Such a game would require too much of the players, creating too much mental load and thus overwhelming any possibility of engagement.
此外，沿着两条轴线越远的游戏通常被认为更“硬核”——需要更多的脑力资源来学习游戏并构建更详细的心理模型——而左下角的游戏则被认为更“休闲”，或者 Quantic Foundry 称之为“轻松有趣”（见图4.12）。每个频段的游戏玩法类型可能有所不同，但学习和成功玩游戏的相对难度（与玩每个游戏所需的相对脑力资源量一致）大致相同。
Moreover, the games further along either axis are generally considered more “hardcore”—requiring more mental resources to learn the game and construct a more detailed mental model—while those in the lower-left corner are seen as being more “casual,” or what Quantic Foundry calls “easy fun” (see Figure 4.12). The gameplay genre may differ across games in each band, but the relative difficulty of learning and succeeding in the game, consistent with the relative amount of mental resources required to play each, remains roughly the same.
图 4.12 Quantic Foundry 的认知阈值图，显示了简单乐趣、平衡乐趣和困难乐趣的等级
Figure 4.12 Quantic Foundry’s cognitive threshold diagram, showing bands for easy fun, balanced fun, and hard fun
互动预算
不同类型的游戏玩法和互动性都会增加玩家的心理负担，了解这一点突出了互动预算的概念。如果玩家愿意将自己和心理资源投入到游戏中，他可能会对图4.11和4.12中所示的游戏感兴趣，或者可能对提供大量情感互动的游戏感兴趣（例如，《Gone Home》或《Papers, Please》）。如果玩家想要体验不那么费力，他可能会选择一款总体上对互动性要求较低的游戏；例如，《Candy Crush》和其他配对游戏只需要少量的短期认知互动，以及一些令人满意的（通常不是高压的）动作/反馈互动和趣味性。虽然游戏必须具有足够的互动性才能保持吸引力，但那些对注意力要求较低的游戏被认为更“随意”，允许玩家随心所欲地沉浸在游戏中，而不必构建复杂的心理模型，这使得玩家可以随心所欲地加入或退出游戏。
Understanding that different kinds of gameplay and interactivity each add to the player’s mental load highlights the idea of the interactivity budget. If a player is willing to dedicate himself and his mental resources to a game, he might be interested in a game further along either of the axes shown in Figures 4.11 and 4.12—or perhaps a game that provides a great deal of emotional interaction (for example, Gone Home or Papers, Please). If a player wants a less taxing experience, he might opt for a game with less interactivity requirements overall; for example, Candy Crush and other matching games require only a small amount of short-term cognitive interaction, along with a bit of satisfying (and usually not high-pressure) action/feedback interactivity and juiciness. While a game has to have enough interactivity to remain engaging, those with lower attentional requirements are seen as being more “casual,” allowing the player to become as absorbed in the game as he likes without having to construct a complex mental model, which enables the player to drop in or out of the game as he pleases.
更一般而言，游戏设计必须尊重玩家的互动预算，以便游戏设计师能够创造什么样的体验。这包括理解较短时间的互动循环（也依赖于反射性注意力来建立参与度）似乎首先消耗玩家的心理资源。动作/反馈可能会压倒短期认知，从而占用长期认知的资源，等等。
More generally, a game design must respect the player’s interactivity budget for the kind of experience the game designer wants to create. This includes understanding that the shorter-duration interactivity loops (those that also depend on reflexive attention for building engagement) appear to take from the player’s mental resources first. Action/feedback can overwhelm short-term cognitive, which can take up the resources for long-term cognitive, and so on.
这意味着，如果您有兴趣开发一款动作性强的游戏，其中包含大量动作/反馈和短期认知互动，那么玩家将没有足够的心理资源进行大量的长期认知、情感或社交互动。只要您不要求它们与游戏中节奏更快的部分同时进行，就可以包括这些互动。许多角色扮演游戏将角色定制所涉及的长期认知互动穿插在更具战术性的短期任务和战斗之间。同样，像《英雄联盟》这样的游戏通过将社交互动与动作/反馈和短期认知循环结合起来，创造了更大的整体参与度。他们通过将其与主要游戏玩法分开来做到这一点：游戏基本上是分段进行的，高强度会话穿插在大厅中更多的社交互动时间。
This means that if you are interested in developing a high-action game with lots of action/feedback and short-term cognitive interaction, the player will not have the mental resources for a lot of long-term cognitive, emotional, or social interaction. It is possible to include these, as long as you don’t require them at the same time as the more fast-paced parts of the game. Many role-playing games intersperse the long-term cognitive interactivity involved in character customization between more tactical, short-term bouts of questing and fighting. Similarly, games like League of Legends create greater overall engagement by including social interactivity along with their action/feedback and short-term cognitive loops. They do this by separating it from the main gameplay: the game is played essentially in segments, with high-intensity sessions interspersed with more socially interactive time in the lobby.
同样，更长期、更周到的游戏设计必须避免过多地要求高动作/反馈或短期认知交互，否则这些会剥夺玩家参与长期交互循环所需的心理资源。例如，Stellaris是一款横跨银河系的战略游戏，专注于长期认知交互，让玩家有时间考虑建立庞大帝国的众多选择。这款游戏看起来很漂亮，具有很高的注意力价值，而不需要玩家以时间压力下的动作/反馈方式进行交互。宇宙飞船之间的战斗确实会发生，但战斗不是由玩家指挥的：玩家可以放大来观看战斗（而且看起来很有戏剧性），但他们不必花费任何注意力或交互努力来亲自进行战斗。
In the same way, designs for more long-term, thoughtful games have to avoid too much in the way of high action/feedback or short-term cognitive interaction requirements, as otherwise these would rob the player of the mental resources needed to engage with the longer-duration interactive loops. For example, Stellaris is a galaxy-spanning strategic game that focuses on long-term cognitive interaction and gives the player the time needed to consider the many options in building a huge empire. The game is pretty to look at, having high attentional value without requiring the player to interact in a time-pressured action/feedback way. Battles between spaceships do happen, but they are not directed by the player: the player can zoom in to see a battle if they want (and they are dramatic to watch) but they don’t have to expend any attentional or interactive effort to run the battle themselves.
类似地，如果游戏旨在产生高度的情感影响，例如《请出示文件》或《火车》，那么通过不让玩家投入大量精力进行动作/反馈、短期认知或长期认知互动，可以帮助玩家保持心理能量和参与焦点，以与情感互动循环进行互动。这并不是说这些循环根本不存在，而是说，如果游戏不是主要为创造情感参与而设计的，它们就不会像以前那样受到重视。这两款游戏都具有看似简单、朴素的呈现方式，使玩家能够专注于他们的情感影响。《火车》的完整设置如图 4.13所示。
Along similar lines, if a game is designed to have a high degree of emotional impact, such as Papers, Please or Train, it helps the player retain the mental energy and engagement focus to interact with the emotional interactivity loops by not having the game also require that they devote a lot to action/feedback, short-term cognitive, or long-term cognitive interactions. That’s not to say that those loops aren’t present at all, but that they aren’t as emphasized as they would be if the game were not designed primarily to create emotional engagement. Both of these games feature deceptively simple, austere presentations, enabling the player to focus on their emotional impact. The entire setup for Train is shown in Figure 4.13.
图 4.13游戏Train的简洁但令人难忘的呈现方式（图片由 Brenda Romero 提供）
Figure 4.13 The simple if haunting presentation of the game Train (Photo courtesy of Brenda Romero)
交互预算的确切性质仍是一个有待研究的课题。除了像 Quantic Foundry 所做的那样对用户进行调查外，我们还不知道如何衡量兴奋程度（行动/反馈和短期认知）与战略（长期认知）或其他形式的参与。我们也不知道对于给定的玩家，需要多少感官反馈才能保持注意力和参与度，也不知道这如何受到较长周期交互循环的影响。经验表明，这些类型的交互循环及其总体关系是现实存在的，但它们的应用仍是一个有待实践和未来探索的问题。
The exact nature of the interactivity budget is still a topic for research. We don’t yet know how to measure degrees of excitement (action/feedback and short-term cognitive) versus strategic (long-term cognitive) or other forms of engagement, other than by surveying users, as Quantic Foundry has done. Nor do we know for a given player how much sensory feedback is required to maintain attention and engagement or how this is affected by the presence of longer-cycle interactive loops. Experience has shown the reality of these types of interactive loops and their overall relationships, but their application is still a matter for practice and future exploration.
认识、定义和创造“乐趣”
Recognizing, Defining, and Creating “Fun”
如本章前面所述，互动性缺乏普遍的共识定义。乐趣的定义则更加模糊。它似乎取决于多种因素，包括环境和个人偏好。一个人觉得有趣的东西，另一个人可能会觉得乏味或难以承受，同样的活动，在某些环境下，对某些人来说可能很有趣，而在另一种环境下，对某些人来说可能很无聊或令人痛苦。Caillois 和 Barash (1961) 试图用agon、alea、ilinx和模仿等游戏形式来捕捉不同类型的游戏和不同类型的乐趣。Koster (2004) 说，“乐趣只是学习的另一种说法。”其他人提出了 8 种（Hunicke 等人，2004 年）、14 种（Garneau，2001 年）或多达 21 种（Winter，2010 年）不同的乐趣！面对这些可能的定义，我们将在此考虑如何利用我们对互动性和参与度的理解来构建一个全面且可用的乐趣理论。
As noted earlier in this chapter, interactivity is lacking a general consensus definition. Fun is, if anything, even more ill-defined. It appears to be dependent on a wide variety of factors, including context and individual preferences. What one person finds fun another may find tedious or overwhelming, and the same activity may be fun for someone in some contexts and boring or distressing for them in another. Caillois and Barash (1961) attempted to capture different kinds of play and different kinds of fun with agon, alea, ilinx, and mimicry forms of play. Koster (2004) said that “fun is just another word for learning.” Others have proposed 8 (Hunicke et al. 2004), 14 (Garneau 2001), or as many as 21 (Winter 2010) separate kinds of fun! Undaunted by this variety of possible definitions, we will consider here how we can use our understanding of interactivity and engagement to build a comprehensive and usable theory of fun.
趣味特征
Characteristics of Fun
在开始定义什么是乐趣以及乐趣与游戏和玩乐之间的关系之前，有必要回顾一下通常与乐趣相关的体验类型以及它们所具有的共同特征。其中大部分是我们在研究游戏是什么以及人们如何与游戏互动时已经遇到过的特质。
Before beginning to define what fun is and how it relates to games and play, it is useful to review the types of experiences that are often related as being fun and the common characteristics they possess. Most of these are qualities we have encountered already in examining what games are and how people interact with them.
最一般的说法是，乐趣体验等同于令人愉快或情绪积极的体验，这种体验持续时间不短，而且个人通常想重复体验。Schaufeli 及其同事 (2002) 表示，在某种程度上，乐趣体验是一种“普遍的情感认知状态”，持续时间比愉悦感要长，并且涉及情感和认知。
In the most general terms, fun experiences are synonymous with pleasant or emotionally positive ones that have more than a quick duration and that an individual would generally want to repeat. Schaufeli and colleagues (2002) said that in part, the experience of fun is a “pervasive affective-cognitive state” that lasts longer than just a jolt of pleasure and that involves both emotions and cognition.
娱乐活动和情境完全是自愿的，通常不会引起任何后果。这些属性与魔法圈的理念相符：魔法圈内发生的事情不受任何更重要的因素影响，没有人被迫参与。当人们无法选择退出一项原本令人愉快的活动时，娱乐的感觉也就消失了。
Fun activities and contexts are entirely voluntary and typically nonconsequential. These attributes fit with the idea of the magic circle: what happens within the circle is free of the weight of any greater importance, and no one is compelled to participate. When the ability to opt out of an otherwise agreeable activity is taken away, so is the feeling of fun.
有趣的体验很有吸引力——它们不是可以避免的，也不是仅仅提供信息而没有情感内容。它们带有积极的情感价，而不是消极或中性的情感价。话虽如此，即使在这个一般层面上，也存在着看似人性不一致的现象：有时表面上看起来悲伤或可怕的体验（例如戏剧电影或鬼屋）可能仍然很有趣——如果它也是自愿的和无关紧要的。知道你并没有真正处于危险之中，或者悲剧并没有真正发生，你就可以自由地享受情绪的洗礼（从肾上腺素的释放开始），这是一种有趣的体验。
Fun experiences are attractive—they aren’t to be avoided, nor are they merely informative, with no emotional content. They carry a positive rather than negative or neutral emotional valence. That said, even at this general level, there are wrinkles for what can seem like human inconsistency: sometimes an experience that on the surface appears sad or frightening (such as a dramatic movie or haunted house) may still be experienced as fun—if it is also voluntary and nonconsequential. Knowing that you are not truly in danger or that a tragedy has not truly struck leaves you free to enjoy the wash of emotions (from the release of adrenaline on up) as a fun experience.
在这个大范围内，有许多不同类型的乐趣体验。有些体验会刺激感官，无论是像烟花一样吸引反射性注意力，还是像ilinx中提到的眩晕感，或者它们会刺激神经递质的释放，如前所述，如多巴胺、血清素、催产素和内啡肽。其他体验则提供物质奖励、社会融入、成就感，甚至是完整性（如完成集合的满足感）。
Within this large scope, there are many different kinds of fun experiences. Some are thrilling to the senses, whether capturing reflexive attention, as with fireworks, or the sense of vertigo referred to in ilinx, or they stimulate the release of neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphins, as discussed earlier. Others provide a sense of material reward, social inclusion, achievement, or even completeness (as with the satisfaction of set completion).
乐趣体验可能包括学习，但这不是必要组成部分；有时，表演一项熟练掌握的技能或仅仅参加一项体育或团体活动就令人愉快和有趣。乐趣也不需要理性的存在或不存在。需要大量脑力劳动的谜题可能会产生一种聪明胜利的乐趣感，其他完全基于感官或由情感而非认知驱动的体验也可能被视为乐趣。
The experience of fun may include learning, but this is not a necessary component; sometimes performing a well-learned skill or simply participating in a physical or group activity is delightful and fun. Nor is the presence or absence of rationality required for fun. Puzzles requiring considerable mental work may nevertheless yield a fun feeling of clever victory, and other experiences that are either entirely sensory based or that are driven by emotions rather than cognition may be experienced as fun.
乐趣还具有满足感和某种平衡感：如果某种情况或活动太无聊或太紧张（个人主观感受），太混乱或太随意，那么它就不再有趣了。如前所述，乐趣和流畅度似乎有着密切的联系。
Fun is also characterized by feelings of satisfaction and a sort of sense of balance: if a situation or an activity is too boring or too stressful (subjectively to the individual), too chaotic or too arbitrary, then it is no longer fun. Fun and flow, as discussed earlier, appear to be deeply related.
定义乐趣
Defining Fun
从上述内容以及对互动性和参与度的讨论中，我们可以看出，没有一个简单的乐趣定义可以适用于所有情况。然而，同样明显的是，虽然乐趣有多种形式，但形式也有一定的规律性。乐趣的定义方面与本章前面讨论的参与度类型以及第 3 章讨论的游戏的结构、功能和主题元素非常吻合。
From the foregoing and from the discussion of interactivity and engagement, we can see that there is no one simple definition of fun that fits all situations. It is also apparent, however, that while fun comes in many forms, there is some regularity to the forms. Definitional aspects of fun fit well with the types of engagement discussed earlier in this chapter and with the structural, functional, and thematic elements of games discussed in Chapter 3.
首先，乐趣必须是自愿的，而乐趣活动通常不会引起任何后果。如果参与是被迫的（无论是通过胁迫、上瘾还是其他某种行动能力丧失），活动中的任何乐趣都会消失。同样，在大多数情况下，如果存在潜在的后果，特别是可能导致某种形式的实际损失的后果，乐趣就消失了。当然，许多人用钱赌博并认为这很有趣——但这是一种自愿的冒险行为；正是风险和回报的可能性（以及伴随这种预期而产生的多巴胺释放）使这种行为保持乐趣的范畴。
First and foremost, fun must be voluntary, and fun activities are typically nonconsequential. If participation is compelled (whether through coercion, addiction, or some other loss of agency), any fun in an activity vanishes. Likewise, in most cases, if there is a potential consequence attached, particularly one that may result in some form of real loss, the fun is gone. Of course, many people gamble with money and consider it to be fun—but that is a voluntary act of risk-taking; it is the risk and the potential for reward (along with the dopamine release accompanying that anticipation) that keeps this in the realm of fun.
乐趣会引发积极的感觉；它不是情绪中立的。它可能在感官或身体环境中产生，包括视觉、听觉、味觉、触觉和运动等刺激。这些感觉的例子包括ilinx或过山车带来的纯粹且自愿的眩晕感，或灯光秀或音乐表演带来的感官愉悦。
Fun induces positive feelings; it is not emotionally neutral. It may arise in sensory or physical contexts, including stimuli such as sight, sound, taste, touch, and movement. Examples of these feelings include the pure—and voluntary—vertiginous feeling of ilinx or the roller coaster or the sensory delight of a light show or musical performance.
当然，只要是自愿的，并且（至少大部分情况下）不重要，从简单的谜题到长期战略，在认知追求中都可以体验到乐趣。这也是学习中体验到的乐趣发挥作用的地方：构建一个心理模型来更好地理解一种情况，即使背景是“严肃的”，也常常可以体验到乐趣。并非所有的学习都一定是有趣的（尤其是死记硬背或在压力过大的情况下学习），也并非所有的乐趣都需要学习，但就乐趣的认知方面而言，学习是景观的一个重要特征。
Fun can, of course, be experienced in cognitive pursuits from simple puzzles to long-range strategies, as long as they remain voluntary and (at least mostly) nonconsequential. This is also where the fun experienced in learning comes into play: constructing a mental model to better understand a situation, even if the context is a “serious” one, may often be experienced as fun. Not all learning is necessarily fun (especially rote learning or learning while under too much stress), and not all fun requires learning, but in terms of the cognitive aspects of fun, learning is an important feature of the landscape.
当然，许多社交和情感活动都很有趣。这些活动可能是有组织的，并与其他方面的乐趣相结合，例如舞蹈（社交和身体）或派对游戏（社交和认知），或者它们可能更加随意（观看或参与热烈的对话）。这些至少与文化活动有趣的潜力相抵触——这些活动有助于我们了解我们在社区和文化中的地位，前提是它们处于自愿和非后果的环境中。这有助于解释为什么博物馆至少对某些人来说是有趣的。
Certainly many social and emotional activities are experienced as being fun. These may be structured and combined with other aspects of fun, such as a dance (social and physical) or party games (social and cognitive), or they may be more unstructured (watching or participating in a lively conversation). These at least bump against the potential for cultural activities to be fun—those that help us understand our place in our community and culture, if they remain in a voluntary and nonconsequential context. This helps explain how museums can be seen as fun, at least for some.
另一个跨越所有这些的重要趣味元素是，它必须保持在前面讨论的互动预算的主观设定范围内。在不同的时间，一个人可能会觉得有挑战性，而在其他时候，更简单、更轻松的追求更可取。预算中的这个数额因人而异，也因时而异，但预算的概念——即一个人愿意付出多少精神（或身体）努力——保持不变。同样，这又回到了关于心流的讨论：如果一个如果某项活动对于特定个体在特定时间而言太过无聊或压力太大，则不会感到有趣；至少在那一刻，该个体处于心流通道之外。
Another important element of fun that crosses all of these is that it must remain within the subjectively set bounds of the interactivity budget discussed earlier. At various times, an individual may feel up for a challenge, while at other times simpler, less taxing pursuits are more desirable. This amount in the budget changes from person to person and time to time, but the concept of the budget—of how much mental (or physical) effort an individual is willing to expend—remains consistent. Again, this translates back to the discussion on flow: if an activity is too boring or too stressful for a particular individual at a given time, it is not experienced as fun; the individual is outside the flow channel at least at that moment.
综合以上这些，我们可以说，乐趣是一种复杂的人类体验，它融合了具有以下属性的活动和环境：
Putting these all together, we can say that fun is a complex human experience that incorporates activities and contexts that have these attributes:
自愿且（通常）不产生任何后果
Being voluntary and (typically) nonconsequential
拥有积极的情感价（有时隐藏在消极的表面体验之下）和一定的持续时间，而不仅仅是愉悦的“震动”
Having positive emotional valence (sometimes hidden under a negative surface experience) and some duration rather than just a “jolt” of pleasure
拥有感官、认知、社交、情感和文化参与中的一个或多个元素
Possessing elements of one or more of sensory, cognitive, social, emotional, and cultural engagement
满足个人当前对互动的渴望程度——他们的互动预算——这可能因人而异、因时而异
Fitting into an individual’s current level of desire for interactivity—their interactivity budget—which may vary from person to person and time to time
简而言之，虽然并非所有的参与体验都是有趣的，但所有有趣的体验都是参与体验。它们在多种不同的形式和时间范围内保持积极、有吸引力、参与度高的特点——无论个人在当时觉得互动的程度如何。
As an attempt to boil this down, it can be said that while not all engaging experiences are fun, all fun experiences are engaging. They maintain a positive, attractive, engaging aspect across multiple different forms and time scales—to whatever degree of interaction an individual finds enjoyable in the moment.
从操作上来说，就游戏设计而言，这意味着要获得成功，游戏需要满足以下要求：
Operationally—in terms of designing games—what this means is that to be successful, a game needs to be:
球员自愿选择参加的活动
A voluntary activity that the player chooses to engage in on their own
感知上有吸引力，有明显的号召性用语来启动交互循环
Perceptually attractive, with an obvious call to action to start the interactive loops
采用本章中描述的一种或多种方式进行交互——在广阔的游戏空间中为玩家提供决策机会，并激发玩家的“活力、奉献精神和专注力”（Schaufeli 等人，2002 年）
Interactively engaging in one or more of the ways described in this chapter—providing opportunities for player decisions in a broad play-space and inviting the player’s “vigor, dedication, and absorption” (Schaufeli et al. 2002)
不要过度消耗玩家的智力或互动能力
Not overly taxing of the player’s mental capacities or interactivity budget
你不能简单地“设计”这些品质，然后勾选它们。它们必然是你设计创造的整个体验的自然结果。作为一名设计师，你所做的每一件事都需要考虑几个问题：你是在增加这些品质还是削弱它们？游戏设计是否提供了足够的参与机会，包括某种有意义的决定？它是否以一种不会压倒玩家心理预算的方式做到了这一点？在设计、构建和测试游戏时，你需要多次问自己这些问题。
You cannot simply “design in” any of these qualities and then check them off. They are necessarily the emergent result of the whole experience created by your design. As a designer, with everything you do, you need to consider several questions: Are you adding to these qualities or detracting from them? Does the game design provide sufficient opportunities for engagement, including meaningful decisions of some sort? Does it do so in a way that does not overwhelm the player’s mental budget? You need to ask yourself these questions multiple times as you are designing, building, and testing a game.
游戏必须要有趣吗？
Do Games Have to Be Fun?
游戏是旨在实现互动和吸引人的系统。由于许多吸引人的活动也很有趣——自愿、无关紧要、有吸引力、积极、互动——我们经常认为游戏自然而然地属于这一类别。大多数游戏确实如此。
Games are systems designed to be interactive and engaging. Because many engaging activities are also fun—voluntary, nonconsequential, attractive, positively valenced, and interactive—we often assume that games naturally fall into this categorization. And most do.
但这并不是绝对必要的。正如《火车》等游戏的例子所示，完全有可能以一种有点颠覆性的方式利用游戏的吸引力、互动性和吸引力，引导玩家体验有价值的、他们从未寻求过的体验。
This is not strictly necessary, though. As the example of games like Train show, it is entirely possible to use the attractive, interactive, and engaging nature of games in a somewhat subversive way to lead players to experiences that are valuable but that they would never have sought out.
在一场关于游戏玩法积极和消极情感的研讨会上，Birk 和同事 (2015) 写道：
In a workshop on positive and negative affect in gameplay, Birk and colleagues (2015) wrote:
游戏大多数时候让我们感到快乐，但有时也会让我们感到沮丧或悲伤。游戏让我们体验快乐、成功和喜悦，但游戏也可能因为主题较为阴暗而产生沮丧、失败或悲伤的感觉。在游戏中，我们可以体验各种情绪——既有积极的，也有消极的。
Most of the time games make us happy, but sometimes they are frustrating or make us feel sad. They allow us to experience pleasure, success and joy, but they can also yield feelings of frustration, failure, or sorrow as a result of darker themes. In games, we can experience the full range of emotions—both positive and negative.
他们继续指出，许多游戏都是建立在令人沮丧的体验之上的（例如，《超级食肉男孩》、《黑暗之魂》、《矮人要塞》）或那些具有困难的、往往是负面的情感背景的游戏（例如，《最后生还者》、《癌症龙》）。尽管如此，这些游戏仍然符合本章讨论的条件，因为它们是引人入胜的自愿体验，并且（如这里的例子）对其情感互动给予了足够的关注，即使它们不一定有趣，它们仍然非常引人入胜和引人注目。
They go on to point out that many games are built on hugely frustrating experiences (for example, Super Meat Boy, Dark Souls, Dwarf Fortress) or those with difficult, often negative emotional contexts (for example, The Last of Us, That Dragon Cancer). Nevertheless, these games stay well within the terms discussed in this chapter in that they are engaging, voluntary experiences with (as in the examples here) sufficient attention paid to their emotional interactivity that even if they are not necessarily fun, they remain enormously engaging and compelling.
重温深度与优雅
Revisiting Depth and Elegance
在互动性、参与度和趣味性的背景下，我们可以重新审视第 2 章中介绍的游戏深度和优雅性概念。您可能还记得，系统深度来自于系统内的系统层次结构，其中某一层的部分是组织中下一层的整个系统，而系统只是更高层组织的一部分。当游戏设计有足够多的层次时，玩家可以在这些层次上上下下地遍历，作为其心智模型的一部分，找到与每个层次的系统互动的方法，这将大大增加整体参与度，甚至产生一种令人着迷的认知奇迹感——理性和情感参与的结合，也存在于（非交互式）分形和动态自相似系统结构中。
Within the context of interactivity, engagement, and fun, we can revisit the notions of depth and elegance in games introduced in Chapter 2. You may recall that systemic depth comes from having a hierarchy of systems within systems, where the part at one level is the whole system for one level down in organization, and the system is just a part in a higher-level organization. When there are enough levels to a game’s design that the player can traverse up and down these levels as part of their mental model, finding ways to interact with the system at each level, this adds significantly to the overall engagement and even a sense of captivating cognitive wonder—a combination of rational and emotional engagement also found in (non-interactive) fractals and dynamic self-similar systemic structures.
同样，优雅是游戏所具有的品质，当其系统不仅具有深度，而且通常没有例外、特殊情况或系统结构中的其他不规则性，从而破坏其对称性和亚稳态规律性时。具有这种品质的游戏完全符合布什内尔定律，因为它们易于学习但难以掌握，因为玩家能够相对轻松地构建心理模型，只需进行少量互动，在接近另一个区域时重复使用在一个区域学到的结构，从而简化学习过程——但不会将游戏空间压缩成一条狭窄的道路。
In the same way, elegance is the quality a game possesses when its systems are not only deep, but generally free from exceptions, special cases, or other irregularities in the systemic structure that ruin its symmetry and metastable regularity. Games with this quality fall squarely into Bushnell’s Law in that they are easy to learn and difficult to master, as the player is able to relatively easily construct a mental model with only a few interactions, reusing structures learned in one area when approaching another, thus easing the learning process—but without collapsing the play-space into a narrow path.
当游戏要求玩家记住有例外的规则或以相互矛盾的方式运行的两个不同系统时，这种心理资源的分配会减少玩家的互动预算，从而降低他们的参与度。玩家必须更加努力才能在脑海中理解游戏的内部模型；而要让他们少担心如何玩游戏，而只是享受游戏乐趣。游戏越简单——游戏规则越少，特别是例外情况越少，同时保持较大的游戏空间（通过拥有多个组织级别让玩家可以与之互动）——游戏就越优雅，最终就越引人入胜，越令人愉快。
When games require that the player keep in mind rules with exceptions or two different systems that operate in contradictory fashions, this allocation of mental resources reduces the player’s interaction budget and thus their engagement. The player has to work harder to get to the point where they have understood the game’s internal model in their mind; it is more difficult to get to the point where they can worry less about how to play the game and simply enjoy playing it. The easier this is—the fewer rules and especially the fewer exceptions the game has, while maintaining a large space for play (aided by having many levels of organization on which the player can interact with it)—the more elegant and ultimately engaging and enjoyable the game will be.
概括
Summary
本章提供了游戏设计所需的基础知识的最后一部分。您已经看到了前面介绍的系统思维方法如何澄清游戏设计中至关重要的互动性这一原本模糊的问题。这种对互动性的系统理解为讨论玩家如何构建心理模型作为游戏内部模型的补充奠定了基础，并借助玩家和他们正在玩的游戏之间发生的各种类型的交互循环。这些反过来又阐明了多种形式的参与体验。
This chapter provides the final part of the foundations needed for approaching game design. You have seen how the systems thinking approach introduced earlier clarifies the otherwise muddy issue of interactivity that is so crucial to designing games. This systemic understanding of interactivity sets the stage for discussing how the player builds a mental model as a companion to the game’s internal model, aided by the various types of interactive loops that occur between the player and the game they are playing. These in turn illuminates the experience of engagement in many forms.
有了这个基础，您已经看到了如何定义看似简单但又难以捉摸的“乐趣”概念。本章得出的结论有些自相矛盾，即虽然大多数游戏都是有趣的体验，但并不一定如此——只要它们保持高度互动性和吸引力即可。
With this basis, you have seen how it is possible to define the seemingly simple but highly elusive concept of fun. The somewhat paradoxical conclusion in this chapter is that while most games are fun experiences, they do not have to be—as long as they remain highly interactive and engaging.
从下一章开始，我们将从这个基础开始向上构建，将对系统思维、游戏结构、交互性和玩家心理模型的理解应用于游戏设计过程中。
Starting in the next chapter, we begin building upward from this foundation by applying this understanding of systems thinking, game structure, interactivity, and the player’s mental model in the process of designing games.
1.更广泛地说，我们每个人都对自己的每一次互动都抱有心理模型，无论是与游戏、他人，还是我们自己。这里我们关注的是我们在玩游戏时形成的心理模型。
1. More broadly, each of us carries a mental model of every interaction we have, whether with a game, another person, or even ourselves. Here we focus on the mental models we form as part of playing a game.
2.人类在性交后会释放催产素，但也会因相互凝视而释放。事实上，只要开诚布公地聊上半个小时，然后凝视对方的眼睛几分钟，就有可能爱上一个人（Kellerman 等人，1989 年）。人类和狗在相互凝视时也会释放催产素，但人类和其他动物之间不会（Nagasawa 等人，2015 年）。那么，除了对社交参与有更多了解之外，这对你作为游戏设计师有什么帮助呢？没有办法说。但留意像这样的广泛信息是游戏设计师思维模式的重要组成部分。这要归功于多巴胺。
2. Oxytocin is released post-sex but also due to mutual gaze in humans. In fact, it’s possible to fall in love with someone by talking openly for half an hour and then gazing into each other’s eyes for several minutes (Kellerman et al. 1989). Oxytocin is even released due to mutual gaze in both humans and dogs but not between humans and other animals (Nagasawa et al. 2015). So, beyond understanding a little more about social engagement, how is this helpful to you as a game designer? There’s no way to tell. But being on the lookout for wide-ranging information like this is an important part of the game designer mindset. Blame it on dopamine.
第五章
CHAPTER 5
担任系统游戏设计师
WORKING AS A SYSTEMIC GAME DESIGNER
在本章中，我们将从基础理论转向游戏设计的实践。在这里，我们将探讨游戏设计过程的不同方面，以及作为一名系统游戏设计师如何开始设计游戏。
In this chapter, we move from the foundational theory to the practice of designing games. Here we look at different aspects of the game design process and how to get started in each as a systemic game designer.
这是一个概述，将由第 6 章、第 7 章和第8 章进行补充，在这些章节中，我们将更深入地讨论如何将游戏设计为一个统一的整体，然后是它的循环，最后是它的各个部分。
This is an overview that will be supplemented by Chapters 6, 7, and 8, where we go into more depth on designing the game as a unified whole, then its loops, and finally its parts.
你该如何开始呢？
How Do You Even Start?
很多人都想设计游戏。他们梦想着、谈论着，但却不知何故从未真正开始。这种情况很常见，大多数声称自己有设计游戏的强烈愿望的人从未真正开始过。很少有人鼓起勇气，开始涉足游戏设计的黑暗水域。那些从设计理念的海洋中脱颖而出、将游戏拖出海洋的人更是凤毛麟角。（这似乎是一个夸张的比喻，但当你完成你的第一款游戏时，你可能不再这么想了。）
Lots of people want to design games. They dream about it and talk about it but somehow never manage to actually get started. This is common, and most people who say they have a burning desire to design games never actually do it. Few manage to gather their courage and begin the journey of wading into the dark waters of game design. Rarer still are those who emerge on the far side, dragging their game kicking and screaming from the inchoate sea of design ideas. (That may seem like an overwrought metaphor, but when you complete your first game, you may no longer think so.)
当人们考虑将游戏设计不仅仅当作一种爱好，不仅仅是一种“如果这样会不会很酷”的活动时，他们通常会问的第一个问题就是“我该如何开始？”游戏设计似乎是一个无法解决的问题，没有简单的解决办法，也没有明显的突破口。问题的复杂性和不可理解性使得你能做的最好的事情就是全力以赴，并希望获得最好的结果。事实上，到目前为止，几代游戏设计师都是这样做的。在某个时候，我们这些从事游戏设计数十年的人只是迈出了第一步。对许多人来说，最初的几次尝试都是彻底的失败。Rovio 在凭借愤怒的小鸟一炮走红之前尝试了 51 次——即使是这一次尝试一开始也看起来像是失败了（Cheshire 2011）。
One of the first questions people commonly ask when contemplating doing game design as more than a hobby, more than a “wouldn’t it be cool if” activity, is along the lines of “How do I even start?” Designing a game can seems like an impossible problem with no easy handles, no obvious way in. The sheer complexity and impenetrability of the problem can make it seem like the best you can do is leap in with both feet and hope for the best. That is, in fact, what generations of game designers up to now have done. At some point, those of us who have been designing games for decades just sort of made that first leap. For many the first few attempts are utter failures. Rovio went through 51 attempts before hitting it big with Angry Birds—and even this attempt looked like a flop at first (Cheshire 2011).
失败本身并不是一件坏事；每当你尝试新事物时（游戏设计中大多数时候都是这样），你都会失败很多次。但是，你可以通过系统地进行游戏设计来减少失败的数量和持续时间。将游戏视为一个系统（包含其他系统）是解决从哪里开始这一原本令人不知所措的过程的好方法。
Failure itself isn’t a bad thing; anytime you try something new (which is most of the time in game design), you are going to fail a lot. However, you can reduce the amount and duration of failure by approaching game design systemically. Seeing a game as a system (containing other systems) is a good way to crack the problem of where to start in the otherwise overwhelming process.
从整体到部分或从部分到整体
From Wholes to Parts or Parts to Wholes
了解如何开始的关键之一是弄清楚是从设计的部分、循环还是整体开始。关于这个问题，人们的意见不一。许多设计师都坚定地站在一个阵营或另一个阵营，他们所做的工作对他们有用。一些设计师会宣称，任何游戏设计都必须从“名词和动词”开始——即构成系统的部分——而另一些设计师则从对他们想要创造的体验的更直观的感觉开始。有时，有些人甚至会从 Ellenor (2014) 的“一台做 x 的机器”的想法开始，然后找出哪些部件让它运转，以及从中产生什么样的游戏体验。对游戏设计的“正确”方法的不同意见可能会导致沟通不畅和各说各话。1
One key to knowing how to start is figuring out whether to begin with the parts, the loops, or the whole of your design. Opinions run high on this question. Many designers are firmly in one camp or another, and what they do works for them. Some designers will declare that any game design must start with “the nouns and verbs”—that is, the parts that will form the systems—while others begin with a more intuitive feeling of the kind of experience they want to create. Occasionally some will even start with Ellenor’s (2014) idea of “a machine that does x” and then work out what parts make it go and what sort of gameplay experience emerges from it. Differences of opinion on the “right” way to approach game design can make for miscommunication and talking past each other.1
尽管一些设计师对此持有强烈的看法，但游戏设计并没有单一的“正确”方法。我们的系统观点应该明确这一点：在设计游戏时，你需要完全定义设计的各个部分、循环和整体。作为一名游戏设计师，你需要能够轻松地在组织层级之间上下移动，根据需要在各个部分、循环和整体之间转移你的注意力。因此，你可以从最合理的方式开始设计过程，并根据需要在它们之间切换。
Despite strong opinions from some designers, there is no single “right” way to approach game design. Our systemic view should make this clear: in designing a game, you need to get to the point where you have fully defined the parts, the loops, and the whole of your design. As a game designer, you need to be able to move up and down the organizational levels with ease, shifting your focus between the parts, the loops, and the whole as needed. As a result, you can start the design process with whichever of these makes the most sense and bounce between them as needed.
了解自己的优势，弥补自己的劣势
Know Your Strengths, Work to Your Weaknesses
当你开始考虑制作一款游戏时，你的想法会引领你走向何方？你会考虑制作一款游戏，让玩家扮演鲨鱼或超级英雄，或者让玩家扮演天空中的风筝吗？或者你更倾向于将游戏视为模拟或建模问题？如果这是一款关于单细胞生物的游戏，你会从列出细胞的所有部分开始吗？或者你会开始考虑制作一款游戏，让玩家扮演远程贸易站的经理，并记下买卖是如何进行的？
When you begin thinking about making a game, where do your thoughts lead you? Do you think about things like having a game where players are sharks or superheroes, or where each is a kite in the sky? Or are you more likely to approach a game as a simulation or modeling problem? If it’s a game about a little one-celled organism, do you start by listing all the parts of the cell? Or do you maybe start thinking about a game where the player is the manager of a remote trading post by jotting down how buying and selling would work?
每个游戏设计师都有自己的长处；每个人都有自己的“故乡”，他们从那里开始，然后在设计变得困难时撤退到那里。你需要找出你的游戏设计故乡，然后想办法不屈服于留在那里的诱惑；你还需要弄清楚如何与那些与你游戏设计方式不同的人合作。
Every game designer has their strengths; everyone has their “home place” where they start—and then retreat to when making the design becomes difficult. You need to find out where your game design home is and then work out ways to not give in to the temptation to stay there; you also need to figure out how to work with others who approach game design differently from you.
游戏设计是找出流程中哪些部分对你来说最自然的最好方法。不过，你还是应该考虑一下你认为应该从哪里开始，然后从那里开始。
The doing of game design is the best way to figure out which parts of the process come most naturally to you. Still, it is worth considering where you think it should start and working from there.
讲故事的人
倾向于从整体体验入手的游戏设计师通常会描绘出玩家在游戏中的旅程：玩家的感受、他们遇到的事情以及他们经历了什么样的变化。这样的游戏设计师有时看起来像是讲故事的专家。他们能够让你了解整个世界……但他们可能会遇到麻烦。游戏不是故事。像讲故事一样“讲述”游戏可能是构建玩家所处世界的令人满意的第一步，但最终游戏必须远不止于此。
Game designers who tend to start with the whole experience often paint an evocative picture of the player’s journey through a game: how the player feels, what they encounter, and what sort of changes they go through. Game designers like these can sometimes seem like expert storytellers. They’re able to give you the grand sweep of the world…but they can run into trouble. Games aren’t stories. “Telling” a game like a story can be a satisfying first pass at building the world that the players inhabit, but ultimately the game has to be much more than that.
讲故事的人需要坚持自己的才能，即在脑海中描绘出一个世界的经历，但不能就此止步。如果你是一个讲故事的人，你需要培养自己的才能，创造出有自己的标记、规则和动态元素的工作系统。你可能已经掌握了主题部分，但你需要用底层游戏的结构来支持它——并与能帮助你做到这一点的其他人合作。
A storyteller needs to hang on to their talent for painting a mental picture of the experience of a world but not get stuck there. If you are a storyteller, you need to build your talents for creating working systems that have their own tokens, rules, and dynamic elements. You likely have the thematic part in hand, but you need to support it with the structure of the underlying game—and work with others who can help you do so.
发明者
许多游戏设计师热衷于发明复杂的机制，比如带有许多齿轮的时钟、大理石雕塑等等。这些机制可以展示系统的运作，令人着迷。同样，有时游戏设计师会想出新的生态或经济机制，并花时间去尝试。例如，游戏《孢子》的早期原型包含许多不同的模拟机制，其中一种机制（在玩家的帮助下）模拟了星际气体和尘埃云形成恒星系统的过程。
Many game designers are enamored of inventing complex mechanisms—things like clocks with lots of gears, marble-run sculptures, and so on. These can be mesmerizing displays of systems in action. Similarly, sometimes game designers come up with ideas for new kinds of ecological or economic mechanisms and spend time playing with them. For example, the early prototypes for the game Spore included lots of different simulation mechanisms, including one that (with a bit of help from the player) simulated the formation of a star system from an interstellar cloud of gas and dust.
但尽管这些发明很吸引人，它们并不是游戏。就像讲述游戏故事一样，设计师有时会构建一种机制来满足玩家“观看游戏”的欲望，但后来才意识到他们忽略了人类玩家的需要。设计师可能会向玩家抛出一些零碎的事情，但很明显，机制或模拟仍然是焦点。如果你是一名发明家，你可以做很多事情来构建迷人的动态系统——但不要忘记，游戏必须将人类参与作为系统不可或缺的一部分，玩家需要有长期目标和玩游戏的理由（整个游戏），否则他们会觉得游戏无趣。
But as fascinating as these inventions can be, they aren’t games. As with telling a story about a game, designers will sometimes build a mechanism that scratches the “watch it go” itch, only to realize that they left out the need for a human player. The designer may toss the player a few scraps of things to do, but it’s clear that the mechanism or simulation remains in the spotlight. If you are an inventor, you can do a lot to build fascinating dynamic systems—but don’t forget that games must have human involvement as an integral part of the system and that players need to have long-term goals and reasons to play the game (the whole of the game), or it will be uninteresting to them.
玩具制造商
最后，有些游戏设计师首先是玩具制造者。他们喜欢制作一些小零件或机械装置，这些零件或装置实际上没有任何作用，但仍然具有吸引力和吸引力，至少在一分钟左右的时间内是如此。或者他们可能是那些拥有高度特定领域知识的人——比如索普威斯骆驼式直升机的爬升速度和弹药容量，或者中世纪（或至少是幻想）战斗中不同种类剑的相对优点，或者典型珊瑚礁上的珊瑚类型——或者可能只是喜欢深入挖掘这类信息。
Finally, some game designers are first and foremost toymakers. They love to make little pieces or mechanisms that don’t really do anything but are still attractive and engaging, at least for a minute or so. Or they might be among those with highly specific domain knowledge—things like the climbing rate and ammunition capacity for a Sopwith Camel or the relative merits of different sorts of swords in medieval (or at least fantasy) combat, or the types of coral on a typical reef—or may just love digging in to find this kind of information.
许多从设计中的“名词和动词”开始的游戏设计师都属于玩具制造者类别。也许你想制作一款关于免疫系统中的细胞攻击入侵病毒的游戏，所以你从你所知道的（或你能找到的）关于 T 细胞如何工作开始。玩家做什么以及为什么这样做有吸引力或有趣，这些问题你可能不会立即想到，或者你可能很难找到答案。能够将你的设计建立在特定的部分和行为上——标记和规则、名词和动词——可以帮助你快速创建原型。然而，要将其变成游戏，你需要找到构建交互式系统的方法，并为玩家找到一些要追求和体验的目标。
Many game designers who start with the “nouns and verbs” of their design fit into the toymaker category. Maybe you want to make a game about cells in the immune system attacking invading viruses, and so you start with what you know (or anything you can find) about how a T-cell works. What the player does and why this is engaging or fun are questions that you may not think about right away or that you may have difficulty finding answers for. Having the ability to ground your design in specific parts and behaviors—tokens and rules, nouns and verbs—helps you create prototypes quickly. However, to make it into a game, you need to find ways to build interactive systems and find some goals for the player to pursue and experience.
共同寻找乐趣
关于游戏设计的不同观点的好消息是，一旦你找到了作为设计师的起点，你就可以把你的能力扩展到其他领域。只要你不就此止步，其中任何一个都是很好的起点。更好的消息是，你还可以找到其他具有不同游戏设计天赋的人并与他们合作。对于具有不同设计风格的游戏设计师来说，合作可能很困难甚至令人沮丧，但结果几乎总是更好，对玩家来说也更具吸引力。
The good news about these different views of game design is that once you find your starting point as a designer, you can extend your abilities into the other areas. Any one of these is great as a starting point, as long as you don’t end there, too. The better news is that you can also find others who have different game design talents and work with them. It can be difficult and even frustrating for game designers with different design styles to work together, but the result is almost always far better and more engaging for the player as a result.
无论您偏爱游戏设计流程的哪个部分，您都需要将自己扩展到其他领域，并学会倾听和与那些对游戏设计流程有不同看法的人合作。许多游戏设计都归结为能够传达您的想法，听取他人的想法，并且通常与那些与您有不同优势的人一起工作。将游戏设计理解为系统设计有助于阐明这些关于游戏作为系统和游戏设计师作为系统设计师的不同观点。这种理解应该可以帮助您完善自己的技能并寻找可以补充这些技能的人。
No matter which part of the game design process you prefer, you will need to extend yourself into the other areas and learn to listen to and work with those who see the game design process differently from you. A lot of game design comes down to being able to communicate your ideas, hear other people’s ideas, and generally work together with those who have strengths that are different from yours. Understanding game design as systemic design helps illuminate these different views on games as systems and on game designers as system designers. That understanding should help you refine your skills and look for others who complement them.
游戏设计很大一部分在于经常重复的短语“寻找乐趣”。您可以从一个很酷的玩具、一个有趣的机制或一个引人入胜的体验开始——游戏的部分、循环和整体——但您需要所有这三个元素以及引人入胜的互动性来构建一个有趣的游戏。要做到这一点，您需要将您的系统知识应用于创建游戏系统和游戏系统。
A large part of doing game design is in the oft-repeated phrase “find the fun.” You may start with a cool toy, an intriguing mechanisms, or a compelling experience—the parts, loops, and whole of a game—but you will need all three elements plus engaging interactivity to build a fun game. To do that, you need to apply your knowledge of systems to creating game systems and games as systems.
设计系统性游戏
Designing Systemic Games
作为将游戏设计为系统的方法，我们可以研究游戏中有效系统的属性以及它们如何影响游戏设计过程。
As a way to approach designing games as systems, we can look at the properties of effective systems in games and how they affect the process of game design.
游戏系统的质量
Qualities of Game Systems
Achterman（2011）为构建游戏系统提供了有用的指导方针。他认为，有效的游戏系统有五个特点：
Achterman (2011) has provided helpful guidelines for building game systems. In his view, five qualities are the hallmarks of effective game systems:
可理解性：作为设计师，你必须理解你的游戏系统及其内部系统。当然，你的玩家也必须能够理解它。这就是为什么设计文档（对你而言）和以玩家可以建立心理模型的方式呈现游戏如此重要的原因。
Comprehensible: As a designer, you have to understand your game as a system and the systems within it. Of course, your players have to be able to comprehend it, too. This is why both design documentation (for you) and presenting the game in such a way that players can build a mental model of it are so important.
一致性： Achterman 指出了“在游戏的所有领域都采用相同的规则和内容”的重要性。添加例外或特殊情况来解决问题可能很诱人，但这样做往往会降低系统的弹性（这为游戏后续的问题埋下了伏笔），并使游戏更难学习。（这与第 3 章“游戏和游戏设计基础”中关于优雅的讨论类似。）
Consistent: Achterman points out the importance of having “rules and content [that] function the same in all areas of your game.” It can be tempting to add an exception or a special case to fix a problem, but doing so tends to decrease the resilience of the system (which sets up the game for later problems) and makes it more difficult to learn. (This is similar to the discussion in Chapter 3, “Foundations of Games and Game Design,” on elegance.)
可预测：游戏系统应该针对给定的输入提供可预测的输出。虽然让游戏具有可预测性有助于玩家建立游戏的心理模型，但它也可能与设计突现系统有些矛盾。可预测性不应被理解为游戏系统应该是明显或无聊的机械化。但是，你的系统也不应该针对类似的输入产生截然不同的结果，更不应该因为不可预见的情况而变得脆弱和崩溃。你应该至少要知道你已经考虑到了任何可能损害玩家体验或为他们提供系统漏洞以供他们利用的边缘情况。
Predictable: Game systems should have predictable outputs for given inputs. While making games predictable helps players build mental models of the games, it can also be somewhat at odds with designing systems for emergence. Being predictable should not be taken as meaning that game systems should be obviously or boringly mechanistic. However, neither should your systems produce wildly different results for similar inputs, much less become brittle and break down due to unforeseen circumstances. You should at least be able to know that you have accounted for any edge cases that might hurt a player’s experience or provide them with a gap in the system to exploit to their advantage.
可扩展性：系统地构建游戏通常使其具有高度可扩展性。与其依赖自定义创建的内容“固定内容”（例如，昂贵的手工创建关卡），不如尽可能地创建游戏系统，以便内容可以以新的方式重复使用或程序化创建。您希望创建可以以多种方式使用的部分和循环，而不是一次性使用的弧线，这会产生一组复杂的关系。在循环中，各部分会循环地相互影响，正如资深游戏设计师 Daniel Cook 所说，“弧线是一个您立即退出的断开的循环”（Cook 2012）。以循环而不是弧线为设计依据，也使得将系统添加到新游戏或新环境中变得更加容易，在该环境中，系统将充当新更大系统的一部分。例如，您可能决定要添加一类全新的建筑物供玩家建造；如果游戏中有一个通用的“建筑施工”系统，那么这比手工制作另一个系统要容易得多。通过精心设计游戏系统，只保留必要的部分及其之间的足够循环，您将能够在内部扩展系统或在外部扩展其使用，这比依赖游戏中更多静态内容或分散、分离的系统要容易得多。
Extensible: Building games systemically typically makes them highly extensible. Rather than depend on custom-created content “set pieces” (e.g., expensive hand-created levels), as much as possible you should create game systems such that content can be reused in new ways or created procedurally. You want to create parts and loops that can be used in multiple ways, not a single-use arc that makes for a complicated rather than complex set of relationships. While in a loop the parts affect each other cyclically, as veteran game designer Daniel Cook said, “An arc is a broken loop that you exit immediately” (Cook 2012). Designing in terms of loops rather than arcs also makes it easier to take a system and add it to a new game or put it in a new context, where it acts as a part in a new larger system. For example, you may decide that you want to add a whole new class of buildings for players to construct; if you have a general “building construction” system in the game, this is much easier to do than if you have to hand-craft another one. By designing game systems carefully, with only the needed parts and sufficient loops between them, you will be able to extend the systems internally or extend their use externally far more easily than if you rely on more static content or fractured, separated systems in the game.
优雅：如前几章所述，优雅通常是系统的标志。这一品质总结了上述品质。它超越了上面讨论的一致性品质，但与之相关。以下是优雅的一些示例：
Elegant: As discussed in earlier chapters, elegance is often a hallmark of systems. This quality sums up the ones above. It goes beyond but is related to the quality of consistency discussed above. The following are some examples of elegance:
仅基于几条规则为玩家创造一个多样化的探索空间（同样，围棋是这方面的典型例子。）
Creating a diverse space for players to explore based on only a few rules (Again, Go is the archetypal example of this.)
具有易于学习的系统规则，几乎没有例外，其中可预测的行为和突发行为都是可能的
Having systemic rules with few exceptions that are easy to learn, where both predictable and emergent behaviors are possible
使系统能够在多种环境下使用或添加新部件
Enabling the system to be used within multiple contexts or to have new parts added within it
桌面和数字游戏
Tabletop and Digital Games
本书使用的示例既包括桌面游戏（也称为模拟游戏、棋盘游戏、实体游戏等），也包括数字游戏（在计算机、游戏机、平板电脑或手机上玩的游戏）。从游戏设计的角度来看，这些类型的游戏之间有很多共同点，无论它们的类型或其他差异属性如何。
This book uses examples from both tabletop games—also called analog games, board games, physical games, and so on—and digital games—those played on a computer, console, tablet, or phone. From a game design point of view, there is a great deal of commonality between these types of games, no matter their genre or other differentiating attributes.
即使你从未打算设计桌面游戏，研究桌面游戏也能让你学到很多东西。设计桌面游戏时，唯一的“计算能力”是在玩家的头脑中，所有互动都必须使用玩家可以实际操作的令牌，这是一个巨大的挑战。它限制了你作为设计师将游戏概念变为现实的能力，并强调了游戏令牌之间的关系以及规则、循环和整体体验。数字游戏可以将游戏设计师的很多懒惰隐藏在华丽的图形和叙事场景背后；桌面游戏则没有这种奢侈。
There is a great deal to be learned from studying tabletop games, even if you never plan to design one. Designing for situations in which the only “computing power” is in the players’ heads and where all interaction must happen using tokens the players can physically manipulate presents a significant challenge. It constrains what you as a designer can do to bring a game concept to life and highlights the relationships between the game’s tokens and rules, loops, and overall experience. Digital games can hide a lot of game-designer laziness behind flashy graphics and narrative cut-scenes; tabletop games do not have that luxury.
在与大学戏剧系学生交谈时，演员特伦斯·曼恩 (Terrence Mann) 表示：“电影让你成名，电视让你致富；但戏剧会让你变得优秀”（Gilbert 2017）。这与游戏设计类似（并不是说任何特定类型的游戏设计都一定会让你致富或成名）：设计桌面游戏与设计数字游戏的关系就像在剧院表演与在电影表演之间的关系一样。与戏剧一样，桌面游戏更接近观众；作为游戏设计师，你可以少躲藏一些，并且必须在为这种环境进行设计时磨练你的技艺。
In speaking to university theatre students, actor Terrence Mann said, “Movies make you famous, television will make you rich; but theatre will make you good” (Gilbert 2017). There is an analogy here to game design (not that any particular type of game design will necessarily make you rich or famous): designing tabletop games has the same sort of relationship to designing digital games that acting in theatre does to acting in movies. Like theatre, tabletop games are closer to the audience; you as a game designer can hide less, and must hone your craft in designing for this environment.
这并不是说所有游戏设计师都必须设计棋盘游戏或桌面游戏，尽管这是一种很好的做法。但如果你有时想知道为什么“现代”游戏通常在电脑上玩，而有这么多棋盘游戏被用作例子，这就是原因。桌面游戏在 21 世纪初经历了与数字游戏一样多的复兴。作为一名系统游戏设计师，你可以从两者中学习，你可能会发现设计桌面游戏对你的技能的挑战是设计电脑游戏所没有的。
This is not to say that all game designers must design board or tabletop games, though it is good practice. But if at times you wonder why so many board games are used as examples when “modern” games are typically played on computer, this is the reason. Tabletop games have undergone every bit as much of a renaissance in the early 21st century as have digital games. As a systemic game designer, you can learn from both, and you may well find that designing tabletop games challenges your skills in ways that designing for games run on the computer does not.
游戏系统设计过程
The Process of Designing Games as Systems
从我们希望在游戏系统中找到的抽象品质中稍微退一步，我们可以看看系统游戏设计（无论是桌面游戏还是数字游戏）中常见的整体设计过程。
Stepping down a bit from the abstract qualities we hope to find in game systems, we can look at the overall design process common to systemic game design (whether tabletop or digital).
在设计部分、循环和整体之间，这必然是一个迭代过程。一开始，这个过程可能是在你的头脑中、在白板上、在纸片上、然后在文档和电子表格中迭代的。一旦游戏开始成形，下面简要讨论的原型设计和游戏测试的迭代周期（在第 12 章“让你的游戏成为现实”中更详细地讨论）就变得很重要：快速制作原型并尽早进行游戏测试要比希望你头脑中的想法会像雅典娜从宙斯的头骨中跳出来一样完全成形要好得多。（他们永远都不会这样做。）这个过程是图 5.1所示的游戏设计师循环（与图 4.3相同）。
This is necessarily an iterative process between designing the parts, the loops, and the whole. At first, this process may be iterative in your head, on a whiteboard, and on scraps of paper and then in documents and spreadsheets. Once the game begins to take shape, the iterative cycle of prototyping and playtesting discussed briefly below (and in more detail in Chapter 12, “Making Your Game Real”) becomes important: it is far better to prototype fast and playtest early than to hope the idea you have in your head will spring forth fully formed like Athena from Zeus’s skull. (They never do.) This process is the game designer’s loop shown in Figure 5.1 (which is the same as Figure 4.3).
如前所述，可以从系统结构中的任何一点开始：从部分、循环或整体体验开始——只要从其中一个开始，然后转到其他，这样它们就可以相互支持。有了这个提醒，为了方便起见，我们将从整体、架构和主题元素开始，然后转到功能循环方面，最后转到部分。
As stated earlier, it is possible to begin at any point in the systemic structure: with parts, loops, or the whole experience—as long as, having started with one, you move to the others so that they mutually support each other. With that reminder, for convenience here we will start with the whole, the architectural and thematic elements, and then move to the functional looping aspects, and finally move to the parts.
整体体验：主题建筑
正如第 3 章所讨论的，游戏的高级设计与玩家的整体体验有关。我们可以将其分为架构和主题元素——用户体验的技术方面（游戏的外观和感觉）以及定义游戏内容的更虚无缥缈、有时是隐性的品质。了解游戏的整体性可以回答以下问题：游戏（或游戏中的系统）的意义是什么？
As discussed in Chapter 3, the high-level design of a game has to do with the player’s overall experience. We can separate this into architectural and thematic elements—the technical aspects of the user experience (how the game looks and feels) and the more ethereal, sometimes tacit qualities that define what the game is about. Understanding the whole of the game answers the question What is the point of the game (or a system within the game)?
举个例子，在最近的一次谈话中，游戏《荣耀战魂》的创意总监 Jason VandenBerghe 说道：“我相信战斗是一种艺术形式。游戏就是从这种信念中诞生的”（私人通信，2016 年 12 月）。他希望玩家体验到一种致命的、舞蹈般的艺术形式的肉搏战。虽然这种愿望本身不足以支撑游戏设计，但它是一个令人信服的愿景，是引导游戏开发者的明星，游戏的所有互动和细节最终都源于此。
As one example, in a recent conversation, Jason VandenBerghe, creative director on the game For Honor, said, “I believe that combat is an art form. The game sprung from that belief” (personal communication, December 2016). His desire was for the player to experience hand-to-hand combat as a lethal, dance-like form of art. While that desire is not enough on its own to support the game design, it is a compelling vision, a star to guide the game’s developers and from which all the interactions and details of the game eventually arise.
很多时候，游戏设计师或整个开发团队会全身心投入游戏开发过程，而不会停下来完全弄清楚他们想要在游戏中获得什么样的“整体体验”。主题和愿景的问题似乎无关紧要；团队只想着制作游戏！然而，正如您将在第 11 章“团队合作”中看到的那样，对团队正在制作的游戏拥有共同的、连贯的愿景是成功最重要的指标。
Many times, game designers or entire development teams will launch themselves into the game development process without stopping to entirely clarify what the “whole experience” is that they want in their game. Questions of theme and vision seem frivolous; the team wants to get to making the game! However, as you will see in Chapter 11, “Working as a Team,” having a shared, coherent vision of the game your team is making is the single most important indicator of success.
任何总体愿景都包含多个方面，如以下各节所述。这些方面代表并指出了必须阐明的更详细元素，才能了解游戏将会是什么样子。
There are multiple aspects of any overarching vision, as discussed in the following sections. These aspects represent and point to more detailed elements that have to be articulated to get an idea of what the game will be.
游戏的世界和历史
首先，这个世界是什么？玩家在其中的视角又是什么？你可能想象着一个充满间谍和两面派的残酷无情的世界——但玩家是在这个世界中努力向上的间谍吗？还是一个间谍头子，监督和操纵着一个有时任性的间谍团队？或者可能是一个退休的老间谍，准备执行最后一次复仇任务？这些都描绘了一幅不同的画面，并将你的游戏设计带向不同的方向。
To begin with, what is the world, and what is the player’s point of view within it? You may be thinking of a gritty, cold-hearted world of spies and double-dealing—but is the player a spy working their way up in this world? A spy-master overseeing and pulling the strings on a sometimes wayward team of spies? Or possibly an old spy coming out of retirement for one last vengeful mission? Each of these paints a different picture and will take your game design in a different direction.
为了充实这个世界，请问它的历史中有哪些重大事件——哪些事件与玩家相关？如果你是一个讲故事的人，你可能不得不抵制写 100 页世界传说的冲动。如果你有时间和金钱，尤其是有经验知道什么是有用的，什么是没用的，那么你可以尽情享受这个过程；你可能会为游戏世界添加重要的细节，让它更加生动。但是如果你有时间或预算限制，或者你刚刚开始，你应该避免过于深入地探究背景故事。你需要知道这个世界是什么，它是关于什么的，但一开始，你可以在一两页的文字中做到这一点。你不应该写得比支持其余设计所需的更多。后来，随着游戏开始成型，你可以充实这座城市深刻而悲惨的历史，这里的街道隐藏着无数的秘密。
To fill in the world somewhat, what are the major events in its history—those that are applicable to the players? If you’re a storyteller, you may have to resist the urge to write 100 pages of world lore. If you have the time and money, and especially the experience to know what’s useful and what’s not, then you can indulge yourself in this; you will likely add important details to the game world that make it come to life all the more vividly. But if you have any time or budget constraints, or if you’re just starting out, you should avoid the siren song of diving too deeply into the backstory. You need to know what the world is and what it’s about, but to start with, you can do this in a page or two of text. You shouldn’t write any more than you need to support the rest of the design. Later, as the game is beginning to come together, you can flesh out the deep, tragic history of the city where the streets hold a million secrets.
叙事、进展和关键时刻
游戏世界的历史就是它的过去。它的现在和未来都包含在游戏叙事中。你的游戏是否有一个预先定义的故事供玩家参与？玩家周围是否有更大的事件发生，这些事件源于大规模的历史，但为玩家留下了做出自己决定的空间？或者游戏的历史是否是玩家的起点，过去是序幕，几乎没有后续的叙事来指导玩家的行动？
The game world’s history is its past. Its present and future are contained in the game narrative. Does your game have a predefined story the player has to work within? Are there larger events happening around the player that grow out of the large-scale history but that leave room for the player to make their own decisions? Or is the game’s history a jumping-off point for the player, where what’s past is prologue, and there is little in the way of continuing narrative to guide the player’s actions?
了解游戏世界及其部分历史还能帮助您开始定义游戏中发生的重大事件、玩家的目标和进程以及“关键时刻”——您可以讲述的短暂时刻或故事，帮助向玩家传达有意义的高潮点。
Understanding your game’s world and (some) of its history will also help you begin to define major events that happen in the game, the player’s goals and progression through it, and “key moments”—short moments or stories that you can tell that help communicate meaningful, climactic points for the player.
艺术、货币化和其他整体体验问题
在整个游戏体验层面，有各种各样的问题需要解决：游戏的艺术风格是 2D 还是 3D？绘画、卡通渲染还是超现实主义？你的选择如何向玩家反映游戏的核心和主题？与此密切相关的是玩家与游戏互动的方式——用户界面和用户体验，通常称为 UI/UX。甚至盈利设计——你的游戏如何赚钱——也是你在这个阶段必须考虑的事情。
There are a variety of questions to work through at the level of the whole-game experience: Will the game’s art style be 2D or 3D? Painterly, cel-shaded, or super-realistic? How does your choice reflect the game’s heart and theme to the player? Closely aligned with this is the way the player interacts with the game—the user interface and user experience, often referred to as UI/UX. Even monetization design—how your game makes money—is something you have to consider at this stage.
在第 6 章中，我们将更详细地介绍设计和记录整个游戏体验的过程。现在，请记住，你是否从高层次的、天马行空的创意愿景开始，然后用底层设计来支持它，这并不重要。你是先确定了循环和部分，还是先确定了动态和具体方面，然后才到达这里；无论哪种方式，你都会在完善想法的过程中反复迭代。重要的是，在你开始开发游戏之前——在你确信自己知道游戏是什么之前——你已经有了这个主题和愿景，以及玩家的整体体验，并由你的团队清晰地表达和分享。
In Chapter 6 we will look in more detail at the process of designing and documenting the gameplay experience as a whole. For now, keep in mind that it doesn’t matter so much whether you start with a high-level, blue-sky creative vision that you then support with underlying loops and parts or whether you arrive here after first nailing down those dynamic and specific aspects; either way, you will iterate back and forth between them as you refine your ideas. What matters is that before you begin developing your game—before you assure yourself that you know what the game is—you have this theme and vision, the whole of the player’s experience, clearly articulated and shared by your team.
系统循环和创造游戏空间
第 3 章和第4章“互动性和趣味性”讨论了游戏的循环：游戏世界的动态模型、玩家对游戏的心理模型以及玩家与游戏之间的互动。设计和构建这些循环以及支持它们的结构是“系统设计师”的核心。除了此处的概述外，第 7 章还详细探讨了此主题。
Chapters 3 and 4, “Interactivity and Fun,” discuss the game’s loops: the game’s dynamic model of its world, the player’s mental model of the game, and the interactions that happen between the player and the game. Designing and building these loops and the structures that support them is the heart of being what is often loosely referred to as a “systems designer.” In addition to the overview here, this topic is explored in detail in Chapter 7.
在为玩家创造一个可供探索和居住的空间（而不是让他们沿着一条单一的路径完成游戏）时，你需要定义游戏的系统。这些系统需要支持主题和玩家期望的体验，并且必须在游戏和玩家之间进行交互。你需要指定和创建（通过迭代原型设计和游戏测试）玩家的核心循环、明确的目标以及他们在游戏中前进的方式。
In creating a space for the player to explore and inhabit—rather than a singular path for them to follow through the game—you need to define the game’s systems. These systems need to support the theme and desired player experience, and they must work interactively between the game and the player. You need to specify and create (via iterative prototyping and playtesting) the player’s core loops, explicit goals, and the way they progress through the game.
创建这样的系统可能是游戏设计中最困难的部分：它要求您设想系统如何使用游戏的令牌和规则来创造一种很难提前看清的体验。当然，您不必一次性完成所有工作——这就是原型设计和游戏测试如此重要的原因——但能够很好地想象多个循环系统以记录它们的设计并实现它们仍然是一项艰巨的任务。例如，在许多游戏中，控制资源生产、制作、财富生产和战斗的系统都有自己的内部运作，并且都相互影响并与玩家互动以创造玩家的体验。要让所有这些独立运作并贡献给整个系统，需要技巧、耐心和韧性，因为当某些事情不太奏效时，需要面对反复尝试。
Creating systems like this may be the most difficult part of game design: it requires that you envision the system as it uses the game’s tokens and rules to create an experience that is hard to see clearly in advance. Of course, you don’t have to do this all at once—which is why prototyping and playtesting are so important—but being able to imagine multiple looping systems well enough to record their designs and implement them is nevertheless a daunting task. For example, in many games, the systems controlling resource production, crafting, wealth production, and combat all have their own internal workings, and all interact with each other and the player to create the player’s experience. Getting all these to work on their own and contribute to a systemic whole requires skill, patience, and resilience in the face of repeated attempts when something just doesn’t quite work.
平衡游戏系统
制作游戏系统的一部分是确保游戏定义的所有部分都得到使用和平衡，并且游戏中的每个系统都有明确的目的。如果您在游戏中添加了一个任务系统，而玩家却忽略了它，那么您需要了解为什么它没有为他们的游戏体验做出贡献，并确定是删除它还是修复它以使其发挥作用。第 9 章“游戏平衡方法”和第 10 章“游戏平衡实践”详细介绍了这个过程。
Part of making game systems is ensuring that all parts defined by the game are used and balanced against each other and that every system in the game has a clear purpose. If you add a quest system to your game and players ignore it, you need to understand why it isn’t contributing to their experience and determine whether to remove it or fix it so that it does. Chapter 9, “Game Balance Methods,” and Chapter 10, “Game Balance Practice,” go into this process in detail.
结构部分：标记、值和规则
你可能在游戏设计过程中一开始就想到了一个有趣的循环机制或互动。或者你一开始就想到了你希望玩家拥有的体验和感觉，因此你正在定义游戏和互动循环。或者在某些情况下，你可能一开始就想到了构建游戏的构建块。在任何情况下在这种情况下，在游戏真正成为游戏之前，你需要将游戏的功能循环置于整体背景（游戏体验）中，并创建游戏系统的结构部分。
It may be that you started the game design process with an idea for a fun looping mechanism or interaction. Or maybe you started with the kind of experience and feeling you want the players to have, and so you’re defining the game and interactive loops. Or in some cases you may start with an idea for the building blocks out of which you want to construct your game. In any case, before the game is really a game, you need to situate the game’s functional loops into the context of the whole—the game experience—and also create the structural parts of the game’s systems.
你首先在第 3 章中了解了游戏中的标记、值和规则。你将在第 8 章中再次详细了解它们。现在，就系统设计师的工作而言，你应该明白，确定游戏中到底发生了什么（通过手势描述阶段并能够实现游戏）的过程至关重要。没有它，你就没有游戏。
You first read about the tokens, values, and rules in a game in Chapter 3. You will see them again in detail in Chapter 8. For now, in terms of working as a systemic designer, you should understand that the process of nailing down exactly what is going on in a game—getting past the hand-waving descriptive stage and being able to implement the game—is vital. You don’t have a game without it.
游戏设计的这个方面有时被称为“详细设计”，游戏设计就是在这个方面变得完全具体。那把剑的重量是 3 还是 4？价格是 10 还是 12？游戏中有多少种类型的部队、马匹或花瓣，这些数字对整体游戏玩法有什么影响？跟踪和指定游戏的这些结构部分被称为游戏设计的“电子表格特定”部分。这是系统设计的关键部分；从很多方面来说，它是游戏变得真实的方式。需要这种具体的设计来平衡不同的标记部分，使游戏成为一个有凝聚力的整体，而不是让它成为可能分崩离析的独立系统。
This aspect of game design is sometimes called “detailed design,” and it is where the game design becomes entirely specific. Does that sword have a weight of 3 or 4? A cost of 10 or 12? How many types of troops, or horses, or flower petals are there in the game, and what differences do these numbers make to the overall gameplay? Tracking and specifying these structural parts of the game has been called the “spreadsheet-specific” part of game design. This is a crucial part of systemic design; it is in many ways how the game becomes real. Such specific design is needed for balancing the different tokenized parts against each other to make the game a cohesive whole rather than allow it to become separate systems that can fly apart.
您需要考虑的问题是如何指定代表游戏中对象的标记（玩家、其他人、国家、生物、宇宙飞船或游戏中的任何操作单位），并为每个标记赋予足够的属性、值和行为来定义它们。思考这个问题的一种方法是回答以下问题：您可以使用多少个属性、状态和行为来支持游戏系统并提供您想要的整体游戏体验？
The issues you need to think about here are how to specify tokens that represent the objects in the game—the player, other people, nations, creatures, spaceships, or whatever the operative units are within your game—and give each of them sufficient attributes, values, and behaviors to define them. One way to think of this is to answer the question What is the smallest number of attributes, states, and behaviors you can use to support the game’s systems and provide the overall gameplay experience you want?
与此相关的问题是如何让玩家清楚地了解游戏中的令牌是什么、它们的作用以及玩家如何影响它们。这反过来又会影响游戏的 UI/UX——棋盘或屏幕如何布局以向玩家呈现有关游戏的必要信息。除非您知道必要的信息是什么，否则无法指定这一点。同时，通过询问您认为玩家需要知道哪些信息才能玩游戏来解决这个问题本身可以帮助澄清标记过程。
Related to this are the issues of how to make obvious to the player what the tokens in the game are, what they do, and how the player can affect them. This in turn feeds into the game’s UI/UX—how the board or screen is laid out to present the necessary information about the game to the player. This cannot be specified until you know what the necessary information is. At the same time, approaching this issue by asking what sorts of information you think the player needs to know to play the game can itself help clarify the tokenizing process.
第 8 章更详细地讨论了这一过程，包括如何通过少量的一般属性来创建复杂的对象、游戏部件或令牌，这些属性彼此交互以在更大的游戏系统中创建自己的子系统。第 8 章还讨论了对象间行为的重要性以及如何避免游戏中的“轻松获胜”或其他破坏游戏玩法的令牌。
Chapter 8 talks about this process in more detail, including how to create complex objects, game pieces, or tokens by having a small number of general attributes that interact with each other to create their own subsystems within the larger game systems. Chapter 8 also discusses the importance of inter-object behaviors and how to avoid “easy win” or other gameplay-killing tokens in your games.
重新审视系统设计过程
Revisiting the Systemic Design Process
作为系统游戏设计师，你的循环（设计师的循环）涉及将游戏视为整体、系统或独立部分（见图5.2）之间的循环。你需要能够同时看到它们以及它们如何相互影响。你还需要能够深入研究任何一个细节，这取决于游戏设计的需要。重要的是，不要只关注任何一个层次而忽略其他层次；你也不想继续在任何一个层次上无效地工作。当你发现自己在一个层次上努力却没有任何实际效果时，通常可以切换到其他层次的角度，以帮助揭示你在另一个层次上需要什么。如果你不能完全理解体验，探索令牌及其工作原理；看看它们是如何为体验提供信息的。或者，如果你清楚地记住了体验，但不能完全指定令牌，看看系统告诉你它们是如何工作的。同时，不要让自己避免标记你的系统，确保有有趣的互动，或确保一个有凝聚力的主题，因为其中一个或多个不在你作为游戏设计师的舒适区。所有这些都是任何工作游戏所必需的，也是系统游戏设计师的必要活动。
As a systemic game designer, your loop—the designer’s loop—involves cycling between seeing the game as a whole, as systems, or as individuated parts (see Figure 5.2). You need to be able to see them all at the same time and how they affect each other. You also need to be able to dive into any one in detail, depending on what’s needed by the game design. It’s important that you not focus on any one level to the exclusion of the others; you also don’t want to continue to work ineffectively on any one of them. When you find yourself pushing on one level without any real effect, it can often help to switch and work from the point of view of the other levels to help reveal what you need in another. If you can’t quite get the experience down, explore the tokens and how they work; see how they inform the experience. Or if you have the experience clearly in mind but can’t quite specify the tokens, see what the systems tell you about how those have to work. At the same time, don’t let yourself avoid tokenizing your systems, making sure there are interesting interactions, or ensuring a cohesive theme because one or more of these aren’t in your comfort zone as a game designer. All of these are necessary for any working game, and all are necessary activities for a systemic game designer.
图 5.2作为游戏设计师，你需要能够同时看到游戏的各个部分、循环和整体体验，并根据需要放大其中任何一个
Figure 5.2 As a game designer, you need to be able to see the parts, the loops, and the game’s whole experience all at the same time and zoom in on any one of them as needed
从系统角度分析游戏
Analyzing Games from a Systems View
游戏设计师的工作不仅仅意味着设计自己的游戏；它还意味着玩和分析大量其他人的游戏。了解其他游戏在特定领域成功或失败的原因非常重要。
Working as a game designer doesn’t just mean designing your own games; it also means playing and analyzing a lot of other people’s games. It’s important to be able to understand what makes other games work—or not work in particular areas.
您可以遵循与设计相同的系统结构进行分析。它涉及查看整个体验，包括如何构建游戏的心理模型；游戏的内部和交互循环；以及组成这些的规则和标记。通过仔细识别和分离这些内容，您可以深入了解游戏设计师做出的决定，并因此改进自己的设计。
You can follow the same systemic structure for analysis as for design. It involves looking at the whole experience, including how you build your mental model of the game; the game’s internal and interactive loops; and the rules and tokens that make those up. By carefully identifying and separating these, you can gain insight into the decisions made by the game’s designer and improve your own designs as a result.
第一次开始玩一款游戏时，请检查自己如何构建自己的心智模型：您是否了解游戏背景和主题？游戏有什么让您感到惊讶的地方？在学习游戏的过程中，您发现游戏中的哪些概念很重要、不完整或难以理解？这款游戏如何能提高您早期的参与度？
When beginning to play a game for the first time, examine how you go about building your own mental model of it: Do you understand the setting and theme? What surprises you about it? What concepts about the game did you find to be important, incomplete, or hard to understand as you learned the game? How might the game have increased your engagement early on?
在玩游戏时和玩游戏后，请思考一下您的整个体验。您认为游戏设计师试图在您作为玩家身上引发什么样的体验和感受？游戏中是否有某些方面支持或削弱了您的体验？
While playing and after playing, think about the whole of the experience you had. What kind of experience and feelings do you think the game designer was trying to elicit in you as a player? Were there particular aspects of the game that supported or detracted from your experience?
游戏中的哪些视觉和交互元素支持其主题和期望的玩家体验？根据艺术风格和交互方面，您可以推断出游戏设计师对游戏的意图吗？
What visual and interactive elements of the game support its theme and the desired player experience? What can you infer about the game designer’s intent for the game, based on the art style and interactive aspects?
你能在游戏中识别出哪些特定的游戏系统？是否有独立于玩家运行的系统，还是它们都依赖于玩家先做某事？棋盘游戏《电力网》就是一个很好的例子，它是一种（非数字）游戏，其系统大多不受玩家控制。例如，在这个游戏中，有一个简单但非常有效的供需经济学描述：随着玩家购买更多某种燃料，其价格就会上涨，直到下一轮补充供应（见图5.3）。
What specific game systems can you identify in the game? Are there systems that operate independently of the players, or do they all rely on the players doing something first? The board game Power Grid is a great example of a (nondigital) game that has systems that operate mostly outside player control. For example, in this game there is a simple but highly effective depiction of supply-and-demand economics: as players buy more of any one kind of fuel, the price for it goes up until its supply is replenished on the next turn (see Figure 5.3).
图 5.3棋盘游戏电网，显示代表煤炭、石油、垃圾和核燃料资源价格的轨道。随着玩家购买每种资源，供应量减少，其价格就会上涨。每回合都会补充供应，如果燃料未被使用，价格就会下降
Figure 5.3 The board game Power Grid, showing the track representing prices for the resources coal, oil, trash, and nuclear fuel. As players purchase each and supply decreases, its price rises. Supply is replenished each turn, driving prices lower if the fuel is not used
继续分析概述，作为游戏中的玩家，您如何进步，您能识别哪些强化循环？有哪些平衡循环会阻碍玩家进步或阻止早期超越其他玩家的玩家轻松赢得游戏？
Continuing with the analysis overview, as a player in a game, how do you progress, and what reinforcing loops can you identify? What balancing loops are there that push back against player advancement or that keep one player who outstrips others early on from simply winning the game?
游戏中互动的主要形式是什么？游戏如何分配互动预算？这是一款策略和社交游戏，还是一款快速思考和快速行动的游戏？玩家与游戏互动的方式是否有助于确立游戏主题，还是与之相反？
What are the primary forms of interactivity in the game? How does the game allocate its interactivity budget? Is this a game of strategy and socializing, or one of quick thinking and fast action? Do the ways you as a player interact with the game help establish the game’s theme, or do they work against it?
最后，特定的标记和规则是什么——游戏的基本部分及其价值和行为是什么？它们是支持所需的游戏体验还是会妨碍游戏体验？在学习了游戏中的一个系统后，你能将其工作原理转移到游戏的另一个部分吗？还是有很多规则需要学习，每个规则都有自己的例外——所以你必须花很多时间思考如何玩游戏？
Finally, what are the particular tokens and rules—the atomic parts of the game with their values and behaviors? Do they support the desired gameplay experience or get in its way? Having learned one system in the game, can you transfer how that works to another part of the game, or are there lots of rules to learn, each with its own exceptions—so that you have to spend a lot of time thinking about how to play the game?
游戏的艺术风格通常通过其单个代币来表达，有时表现方式令人惊讶。例如，桌面游戏Splendor是关于如何建立宝石商人的生意，从单个矿场开始，到讨好各种贵族。游戏中的实物就像扑克筹码。它们代表单个宝石，每颗宝石都有不同寻常的重量。它们的重量巧妙地增加了游戏的体验，尽管像其他艺术作品（以及游戏中的大多数艺术作品）一样，它们没有功能性。
Often the art style of a game is expressed in its individual tokens, sometimes in surprising ways. For example, the tabletop game Splendor is about building up your business as a gem merchant, starting with individual mines and ending with courting the favor of various nobles. The physical pieces in the game are like poker chips. They represent individual gems, and each has an unusual amount of heft. Their weight subtly adds to the desired experience of the game, even though, like the rest of the art (and most art in games), it is nonfunctional.
通过检查游戏的各个部分、循环和整体来分析游戏，您将开始发现游戏之间的共同点以及每个游戏的独特之处。了解相似点和不同点将有助于您改进自己的设计 — 避免他人犯错、借鉴他人的好点子，并保持游戏设计的新鲜感和吸引力。
As you analyze games by examining their parts, loops, and wholes, you will begin to see commonalities across them, as well as how each is unique. Understanding the similarities and differences will help you improve your own designs—avoiding the mistakes of others, springboarding off their good ideas, and keeping your game design fresh and engaging.
原型设计和游戏测试
Prototyping and Playtesting
系统游戏设计师工作中最后一个重要部分是反复获得反馈。游戏设计必然是一个反复测试和改进游戏设计理念的过程，以服务于游戏的整体愿景。游戏理念如果不经过多次修改，就无法从你的脑海中变成最终呈现在玩家面前的形式。在开发过程中，除了单一的统一愿景之外，几乎所有游戏内容都会多次更改，这是很常见的。
A final important part of working as a systemic game designer is iteratively getting feedback. Game design is necessarily a process of repeatedly testing and refining game design ideas in the service of an overall vision for the game. Game ideas will not make it from your mind to their final form in front of the player without having gone through many changes first. It’s common for almost everything about a game except for its single unifying vision to change multiple times during development.
举一个相关创意领域的例子，即电影制作，皮克斯总裁艾德·卡特穆尔公开谈论了其工作室电影制作过程中经历的诸多变化。“我们所有的电影一开始都很烂，”在与有抱负的电影动画师交谈时，他说道。他补充道：“很多人不相信我这么说。他们认为我在谦虚或谦虚，但我不是这个意思。我的意思是这部电影很烂。”他接着讨论了电影《飞屋环游记》在开发过程中经历的许多故事变化：故事开始于一个天空王国，有两个互相不喜欢的王子，他们坠落地球，最终遇到了一只名叫凯文的大鸟。那个版本经历了大量更改。当他们完成电影时，他说道，“剩下的就只有那只鸟和‘飞屋环游记’这个词”（Lane 2015）。
As an example from a related creative field, making movies, Ed Catmull, president of Pixar, has been open about the many gyrations that films at his studios go through. “All of our movies suck at first,” he said when speaking to aspiring movie animators. He clarified that statement by adding, “A lot of people don’t believe me when I say that. They think I’m being self-effacing or modest, but I don’t mean it in that sense. I mean it in the way that the film sucks.” He went on to discuss the many story changes that the movie Up went through during its development: it started with a story about a kingdom in the sky with two princes who didn’t like each other, who fall to earth and end up meeting a giant bird named Kevin. That version went through a huge number of changes. By the time they completed the movie, he said, “All that was left was the bird and the word ‘up’” (Lane 2015).
游戏中也会发生同样的事情。虽然你的游戏可能不会像电影《飞屋环游记》那样发生巨大变化，但你必须为多次迭代做好准备——创意过程的多次循环。这意味着你必须愿意反复测试你的想法，在过程中学习和改变它们。这也意味着你必须足够谦虚，如果一个想法行不通，你就可以改变它或抛弃它。迭代和“寻找乐趣”不可避免地意味着抛弃大量的工作——绘图、动画、编程、设计文档等等。你不能只因为投入了大量时间就坚持自己已经完成的工作。如果你这样做，你将满足于一个还行（或平庸）的想法，而如果再多做一点工作和打磨，它可能会很棒。
The same sort of thing happens in games. While your game may not change as drastically as a movie like Up, you must be prepared for many iterations—many cycles through the creative process. This means you have to be willing to test your ideas over and over again, learning and changing them as you go. And it means you have to be humble enough to change an idea or throw it out if it isn’t working. Iterating and “finding the fun” inevitably means throwing away a lot of work—drawings, animations, programming, design documents, and so on. You cannot cling to something you have worked on just because you put a lot of time into it. If you do, you will be settling for an idea that is okay (or mediocre) when with a little more work and polish it could have been great.
要有效地迭代游戏设计，您需要让它们成为现实。做到这一点的唯一方法是制作早期版本（原型）并进行测试。您可以从白板上的绘图开始，也可以从桌子上的纸片和硬币开始——任何可以真正开始玩弄您的想法的东西。您的大多数原型都会有不同程度的丑陋或未完成，最终会汇聚成完整、完成和完善的产品。关键是要让您的游戏设计脱离想法的范畴，进入可以玩和测试的真实实现——并且尽可能快和频繁地这样做。
To iterate effectively on game designs, you need to make them real. The only way to do this is to make early versions—prototypes—and test them. You may start with drawings on a whiteboard or pieces of paper and coins being pushed around on a table—anything to start actually playing with the idea you have. Most of your prototypes will be varying degrees of ugly or unfinished, converging on the full, finished, and polished product at the end. The point is to take your game design out of the realm of ideas and into real implementations that can be played and tested—and to do so as quickly and often as possible.
游戏测试是验证原型的方法，或者更常见的是，是找出游戏设计缺陷的方法。培养游戏设计师对什么可行或什么不可行的看法很重要，但即使对于最有经验的设计师来说，这也永远无法替代对从未见过游戏的玩家进行游戏测试。正如 Daniel Cook 所说，没有实施和游戏测试，游戏设计就只是“无效的纸上幻想”（Cook，2011b）。您需要尽早并经常与其他人一起测试您的设计理念，以确保游戏顺利进行。
Playtesting is how you validate your prototypes—or, more often, how you find out where your game design is broken. Developing a game designer’s intuition for what will work or not is important, but even for the most experienced designers, it is never a substitute for testing the gameplay on players who have never seen it before. As Daniel Cook has said, without implementation and playtesting a game design remains an “ineffectual paper fantasy” (Cook, 2011b). You will need to test your design ideas with other people early and often to keep your game on track.
在接下来的章节中，我们将经常回顾原型设计和游戏测试的主题，特别是在第 12 章中。现在，你要明白，作为一名游戏设计师，工作的一个核心方面是要有谦逊和创造性的灵活性，根据别人对你的游戏设计想法的看法来测试和改进它们。你需要快速制作原型，这些原型通常很丑陋，你需要在设计和开发过程中反复与潜在玩家测试它们。你脑海中闪闪发光的想法如果不进行修改（很可能需要进行大量修改），就无法在现实中生存下来。
We will return to the topics of prototyping and playtesting often in the following chapters, particularly in Chapter 12. For now, understand that a core aspect of working as a game designer is having the humility and creative flexibility to test and refine your game design ideas based on what others think of them. You will need to make fast, often ugly prototypes, and you will need to test them with potential players repeatedly during design and development. The bright shining idea you have in your head will never survive contact with reality without change—most likely a lot of change.
概括
Summary
本简短章节概述了系统游戏设计师的工作意义。虽然开始设计一款新游戏可能非常困难，但通过将游戏分解为部分、循环和整体（不一定按此顺序），您可以开始掌握在每个级别上定义游戏的方法。
This brief chapter provides an overview of what it means to work as a systemic game designer. While getting started on a new game design can be truly daunting, by breaking down the game into its parts, loops, and wholes—not necessarily in that order—you can begin to get a handle on defining the game at each of those levels.
接下来的章节将更详细地介绍此处讨论的主题。第 6 章更详细地介绍了整个游戏体验 — 如何发现它、记录它以及如何设置创建底层系统。第 7 章重新审视游戏的功能循环，这次使用系统思维和游戏循环的知识来指定游戏的特定循环。然后，第 8 章再次介绍游戏的各个部分以及如何创建这些“特定于电子表格”的标记、值和规则。
The coming chapters add more detail to the topics discussed here. Chapter 6 examines the whole of the game experience in more detail—how you discover it, document it, and set up for creating the underlying systems. Chapter 7 revisits the game’s functional loops, this time using the knowledge of systems thinking and game loops to specify the particular loops for your game. Then Chapter 8 looks again at the game’s parts and how to create these “spreadsheet-specific” tokens, values, and rules.
1.我与《模拟城市》的著名人物威尔·赖特共事时有过这样的经历。他绝对是“名词和动词”类型的人，而我经常从更全面、更体验的角度来设计。我们花了一段时间才能够理解彼此的观点。
1. I had this experience while working with Will Wright of SimCity fame. He is firmly a “nouns and verbs” kind of guy, while I often approach designs from a more holistic-experiential point of view. It took a while before we were able to understand each other’s perspectives.
第六章
CHAPTER 6
设计整体体验
DESIGNING THE WHOLE EXPERIENCE
本章将介绍如何为您的游戏制定总体规划，以及如何在概念文档中记录这一高层次愿景。本文档汇集了从整体玩家体验到游戏独特之处的元素，以及更实际的问题，例如您将如何销售您的游戏以及游戏中包含哪些系统。
This chapter looks at how you arrive at the big picture for your game and how you record this high-level vision in a concept document. This document brings together elements from the overall player experience to what makes your game unique, as well as more practical concerns like how you will sell your game and what systems are included in it.
概念文档是对整个设计的简要概述，但它代表了游戏的统一整体，并将成为您开发游戏的试金石。
The concept document is a brief overview of the entire design, but it represents the unified whole of your game and will be your touchstone as you develop your game.
伟大的想法是什么？
What’s the Big Idea?
每款游戏都包含一个驱动游戏发展的大理念。这通常被称为游戏概念或愿景。在设计过程的早期，你必须弄清楚并明确游戏愿景；你需要能够向其他人简明扼要地解释它。如果你拖延太久，你就会徘徊在各种可能性之间，却永远找不到游戏的核心——而且没有人会理解你在做什么或为什么值得这样做。正如你将在第 11 章“团队合作”中看到的那样，拥有一个清晰、令人信服、共同的游戏愿景是与创造成功游戏相关的最重要的做法。
Every game has within it a single big driving idea. This is often called the concept or vision for the game. It is important that you figure out and clarify your game’s vision early in the design process; you need to be able to explain it succinctly to others. If you put this off too long, you will wander around nibbling at one possibility after another without ever finding the heart of your game—and no one else will understand what you are trying to do or why it’s worth doing. As you will see in Chapter 11, “Working as a Team,” having a clear, compelling, shared vision for your game is the single most important practice that correlates with creating successful games.
尽管人们用“愿景”这样的词来形容游戏创意，但游戏创意并不一定非要宏大而全面。事实上，大多数时候，创意越小、越集中越好。《愤怒的小鸟》背后的创意并不宏大，但这款游戏本身却让数百万人乐在其中。如第 5 章“担任系统游戏设计师”所述，育碧的英雄主义游戏《荣耀战魂》有一个清晰而看似简单的愿景，即“战斗如舞蹈”。虽然关于这款游戏还有很多需要了解的地方，但像这样一个令人回味的短语却具有令人难以置信的强大力量：它可以帮助您快速清晰地传达游戏背后至关重要的驱动理念，让人们兴奋并鼓励他们了解更多信息。
Despite being referred to by words like vision, the idea for a game doesn’t have to be grand and sweeping; in fact, most of the time the smaller and more focused the idea is, the better. The idea behind Angry Birds is hardly epic, but the game itself is hugely enjoyable for millions of people. As mentioned in Chapter 5, “Working as a Systemic Game Designer,” the far more heroic Ubisoft game For Honor has a clear and seemingly simple vision of “combat as dance.” While there is a lot more to know about the game, a single evocative phrase like that is incredibly powerful: it helps you communicate the vital, driving idea behind your game quickly and clearly in a way that excites people and encourages them to find out more.
蓝天设计
Blue-Sky Design
如何确定游戏的核心理念（即愿景）？在许多情况下，特别是当您开始设计一款全新游戏时，您可能有机会进行所谓的构思，即“提出并交流新想法”的花哨说法。其中一种特别开放的形式被称为蓝天设计- 不受限制、规则、商业现实或任何其他可能限制您的创作风格的烦人约束的设计，您可以在蓝天中飞翔，可以朝任何您想要的方向飞去。这可能是一种令人兴奋的体验，也是许多游戏设计师所渴望的，尤其是在他们职业生涯的早期。
How do you work out what your game’s big idea—its vision—is? In many cases, especially if you are beginning the design of an entirely new game, you may have the opportunity to engage in what’s called ideation, a fancy way of saying “coming up with and communicating new ideas.” A particularly open-ended form of this is referred to as blue-sky design—design unfettered by limitations, rules, business realities, or any of the other pesky constraints that can cramp your creative style, where you are flying in the midst of the blue sky, able to go any direction you please. This can be a heady experience, and it’s one that many game designers crave, especially early in their careers.
方法
做空想设计的方法可能和游戏设计师的数量一样多。你可以自己在脑子里进行这种构思，但和别人一起做会更有效。能够与他人交流想法并从他们的创造力中获益，可以增强整个过程和最终的游戏概念。
There are probably as many ways to do blue-sky design as there are game designers. It’s possible to do this kind of ideation on your own, in your own head, but it’s much more effective to do it with others. Being able to bounce ideas off others and gain from their creativity enhances the whole process and the final game concept.
大多数时候，当你在进行蓝天设计时，你会和其他设计师组成的小团队一起工作——这意味着你很可能一开始就坐在一个房间里，房间里放着纸和白板，空得吓人，大家都面面相觑……你必须想出一些新奇的想法。这就像说，“好吧，发挥创意——开始吧！ ”
Most of the time when you’re doing blue-sky design, you’re with a small team of other designers—which means you’re likely to start by sitting in a room with paper and whiteboards all terrifyingly empty, all of you looking at each other…and you have to come up with some big new idea. It’s like saying, “Okay, aaaaand be creative—GO!”
头脑风暴式
许多设计团队将蓝天设计视为头脑风暴练习。这是一个很好的起点，需要进行一些仔细的修改。与许多其他头脑风暴技术一样，您希望首先要追求数量，不要担心质量：只要把想法说出来就行了。你可以从一个提示、一个笑话或任何有助于萌发想法的东西开始。游戏设计师罗恩·吉尔伯特曾说过，“每一次好的头脑风暴会议都始于 15 分钟的星际迷航讨论”（Todd 2007，34）。文化参考会随着时间的推移而改变，但重要的是让每个人精神放松，并保持良好、有趣、投入、富有创造力的心态。
Many design teams run blue-sky design like a brainstorming exercise. This is a good place to start, with some careful modifications. As with many other brainstorming techniques, you want to first aim for quantity and not worry about quality: just get the ideas out. You can start with a prompt, or a joke, or anything to help seed ideas. Game designer Ron Gilbert has been quoted as saying that “every good brainstorming session begins with a 15-minute discussion of Star Trek” (Todd 2007, 34). The cultural references change over time, but it’s important to get everyone mentally loosened up and in a good, fun, engaged, creative frame of mind.
一旦开始，你需要让想法不断涌现，但要尽可能地轻描淡写：严厉的节制往往会扼杀创意的流动。你可以轮流发言，以确保每个人都有贡献。你甚至可以把它当作一个游戏，你说出的想法的第一个字母必须是刚刚发言的人的想法的最后一个字母。这并不重要，只要你让想法不断涌现，直到你建立起许多可能的方向。
Once you get going, you need to keep the ideas flowing, but with as light a touch as possible: heavy-handed moderation often shuts off the creative flow. You can take turns to make sure everyone is contributing. You can even play it as a game, where the first letter of the idea you say has to be the last letter of the idea of the person who just went. It doesn’t really matter, as long as you keep the ideas flowing until you have built up a lot of possible directions.
摆脱简单的想法
拥有快速的创意流并保持这种状态非常重要，最重要的原因是，你的最初想法很可能很糟糕。它们可能是浅薄的刻板印象和陈词滥调，是你最近遇到的游戏、电视节目或电影的翻版。大多数设计师都会遇到这种情况。这些想法浮现在你的脑海中，所以当你开始想出点子时，它们是最容易从你的创意技巧包中抽出来的。
The most important reason it’s so important to have a fast flow of ideas and to keep it going is that your initial ideas, more likely than not, will stink. They will be shallow stereotypes and clichés, thin retreads of a game or TV show or movie that you recently encountered. This happens to most designers. These ideas are what’s on the surface of your mind, and so they’re the easiest thing for your mind to grab out of your bag of creative tricks when you start having to come up with ideas.
你无法真正避免陷入刻板印象和陈词滥调，但你可以也应该避免止步于此。最初的几个想法会很诱人，因为你很快就想到了它们（证明你有多聪明）。你可能想就此止步，但你需要把这种自负的想法放在一边，继续前进。你需要探索和突破自己的创意界限。如果你与其他游戏设计师合作，你需要看看你能根据他们所说的想出什么。如果这个过程进展顺利，你们将以彼此的想法为跳板，到达你从未想过的地方。
You can’t really avoid dealing in stereotypes and clichés, but you can and should avoid stopping there. Those first few ideas will be seductive because you thought of them so quickly (proving how clever you are). You may want to stop there, but you need to set that ego-stroking thought aside and keep going. You need to explore and push your own creative boundaries. If you’re working with other game designers, you need to see what you can come up with based on what they have said. If this process is working well, you will springboard off each other’s ideas and get to places you would never have thought of otherwise.
扭曲的想法
第二大步是将一个现有的想法颠覆。例如，假设你是一个战士，必须杀死龙才能拯救村庄。这很无聊。不是很新颖。但不要否定这个想法和提出这个想法的人，而是扭曲它：如果你试图拯救龙会怎样？为什么要这样做？如果你试图说服村民与龙结盟会怎样？如果你，玩家，就是龙会怎样？只需几个快速步骤，你就可以摆脱陈词滥调，转向仍然可以识别但可能更有价值和更多探索空间的想法。
The second big step is taking an existing idea that’s been tossed into the mix and subverting it. For example, suppose the idea that’s been stated is that you’re a warrior who has to kill the dragon to save the village. Yawn. Not very original. But instead of shutting down the idea and the person who came up with it, twist it: what if you’re trying to save the dragon? Why would that be? What if you’re trying to convince the villagers to ally with the dragon? What if you, the player, are the dragon? In just a few quick steps, you move away from a tired cliché to ideas that are still recognizable but may have more merit and more room to explore.
处理这种情况的另一种方法通常被称为“是的，而且……”思维。这是即兴喜剧和其他领域中常见的技巧，在这些领域，你试图合作建立在他人的想法之上。一个人在谈话中提出一个想法。另一个人不会用令人扫兴的“不”来打压它，而是说“是的，而且……”，然后对第一个想法做出自己的改动。然后另一个人对第二个人的想法做同样的事情。这个过程继续进行，想法会随着这一过程的增加而不断变化。这样做的最好之处在于，没有人试图坚持自己的想法；重要的是想法本身，而不是谁说了什么他们。这是一种很好的方法，可以消除流程中的自我意识，并专注于获得最可行、最具创新性的想法。
Another way of handling this is often known as “yes, and…” thinking. This is a common technique in improvisational comedy and other areas where you’re trying to collaboratively build on others’ ideas. One person lobs an idea into the conversation. Rather than bat it down with a flow-killing “no,” another person says something like “yes, and…” followed by their own twist on the first idea. Then someone else does the same to the second person’s idea. The process continues as the idea morphs by addition along the way. One of the best parts of this is that no one is trying to hang on to their idea; it’s the ideas that are important, not who said them. This is a great way to remove ego from the process and focus on getting to the most viable, innovative ideas.
策展
即使是在空想中，创意的产生也是有限的。在许多头脑风暴过程中，人们普遍认为“没有创意是坏创意”，或者你可以“是的，而且……”任何创意都可以让它变得可行。确实，你一开始确实希望让创意流动起来，摆脱所有很容易出现的刻板印象和陈词滥调，你也希望摆脱“但我希望我的想法获胜！”的不安全感和自负感。但在某个时候，你需要开始转动消防水带上的喷嘴，更多地关注某些创意而不是其他创意。
There is a limit to idea generation even in blue-sky thinking. In many brainstorming processes, there is the general idea that “no idea is a bad idea” or that you can “yes, and…” any idea enough to make it viable. It’s true that you really want to get the idea flow going at first, to run past all the stereotypes and clichés that present themselves so easily, and you also want to get past the insecure, ego-based moment of “but I want my idea to win!” But at some point, you need to start turning the nozzle on the firehose and focus more on some ideas than others.
当团队想出一堆想法时——把它们写在纸上、白板上或类似的东西上——退一步看看它们。通常可以清楚地看出哪些想法背后有最多的激情和创造力——那些让人们兴奋并且团队可以整天探索的想法——以及哪些想法相比之下是创意枯竭的。人们开始自己谈论的那些想法。同时，并非所有这些流行的想法都是你可以构建整个游戏的想法；有些会超出你的能力范围，或者需要不存在的技术，或者只是朝着与你整体目标不符的方向发展。
When the team has generated a bunch of ideas—writing them down on pieces of paper, a whiteboard, or similar—take a step back and look at them. It’s typically clear which have the most passion and creativity behind them—the ones that get people excited and that the team could keep exploring all day—and which ones are by comparison creative dry wells. The ones that people begin talking about on their own. At the same time, not all of those popular ideas will be ones you can build an entire game on; some will be beyond your means, or require technology that doesn’t exist, or just go in a direction that doesn’t fit where you want to go overall.
决定从其他想法中仔细挑选、改进和添加哪些想法是一个困难的过程，需要大量的经验和合理的判断。这种选择就像博物馆馆长决定展出许多有价值的物品中的哪些；在策划展览时，馆长不会认为某些物品没有价值而将其排除在外，但并非所有物品都能成为关注的焦点。同样，虽然任何人都可以有伟大的想法，但需要经验才能识别哪些想法最值得追随，尤其是当有一大堆好的想法争相吸引注意力时。
Deciding which ideas to carefully select, enhance, and add to from other ideas is a difficult process that requires a great deal of experience and sound judgment. This type of selection is like a museum director deciding which of many valuable items to exhibit; in curating exhibit, the director is not dismissing some pieces as not being valuable, but not everything can be the center of attention. In the same way, while it’s true that anyone can have great ideas, it takes experience to recognize which ones are most worth following, especially when there’s a crowd of good ideas jostling for attention.
通常，高级创意人员（在大型组织中可能是创意总监、首席设计师或有时是执行制片人）的职责是将蓝天团队的努力集中在他们可以深入研究的几个想法上。这可以很简单，比如在白板上圈出想法，并指导团队朝着这些想法努力；也可以很正式，比如指导团队仅对提交的众多书面处理中几个简短的想法进行进一步的研究。无论如何，这种层次的想法管理意味着抛弃所有其他想法，而这并不容易。请记住，从所有产生的想法中找到最适合当前情况的几个想法是集中团队创造力的关键部分；你不可能专注于所有的想法。套用史蒂夫·乔布斯的一句话，1重要的是要记住，专注就是对 1,000 个好主意说“不”。
It typically falls to a senior creative person—in a large organization this might be a creative director, a lead designer, or sometimes an executive producer—to focus the blue-sky team’s efforts to just a few ideas that they can dig into more deeply. This can be as simple as circling ideas on a whiteboard and directing the team’s efforts toward them or as formal as directing further work on only a few brief written treatments out of many submitted. In any event, this level of idea curation means leaving behind all the other ideas, and that’s not easy. It helps to remember that finding the few ideas that are best for the current situation out of all those generated is a key part of focusing the team’s creative efforts; you cannot focus on all the ideas. To paraphrase a longer statement by Steve Jobs,1 it’s important to remember that focus is saying “no” to 1,000 good ideas.
蓝天设计的局限性
蓝天设计一开始可能完全没有方向、没有重点，而且它可能会激发出很多你原本无法发现的想法。然而，事实证明，这种无限制的设计往往毫无结果——或者会引向许多相反的方向，而这些方向都不是明显的赢家。面对可以设计任何自己想要的东西的机会，许多游戏设计师发现自己陷入了困境，无法想出任何连贯的设计方向。
Blue-sky design can start out entirely undirected and unfocused, and it can be a way to generate many ideas you would not have otherwise found. As it turns out, however, such unbounded design often leads nowhere—or it leads in many opposing directions, none of which are obvious winners. Presented with the opportunity to design anything they want, many game designers find themselves paralyzed, unable to come up with any coherent design direction at all.
由于创意不受限制，许多设计师发现他们回到了他们已经熟悉的游戏的概念安全，而不是朝着全新的方向前进。头脑风暴和“是的，而且……”可以帮助这个过程，但前提是参与其中的人能够在精神上跳入未知领域。同样，由于时间不受限制，许多设计师发现他们无休止地修改设计，从来没有下定决心完成游戏。
With no limits on creative ideas, many designers find that they return to the conceptual safety of a game a lot like one they already know rather than strike out in entirely new directions. Brainstorming and “yes, and…” can help this process, but only if those involved are able to mentally take the leap into unknown territory. In a similar way, with no limits on time, many designers find that they tinker endlessly with a design and never quite make up their minds and simply finishing the game.
这并不是说空想设计毫无价值。如果有合适的人参与，它可以成为一种很棒的体验，并带来高度创新的新游戏。但重要的是要明白，这种无限的设计空间很少像看起来那么令人向往，而且往往不会产生你想象中的令人惊叹的新游戏。
That is not to say that blue-sky design is worthless. With the right people involved, it can be a terrific experience and lead to highly innovative new games. But it’s important to understand that this sort of unlimited design space is rarely as desirable as it may seem and often does not result in the amazing new games you might imagine.
约束是你的朋友
幸运的是，真正不受限制地进行设计的机会很少。你的设计理念几乎肯定已经受到一些限制：你的时间或金钱有限，你可能在游戏平台上受到限制，你编写游戏和创作游戏艺术的能力也可能受到限制。
Fortunately, opportunities to design truly without limits are rare. You almost certainly have some constraints on your design concept already: you have only so much time or money, you may be limited in what platform you can put the game on, and you are probably limited by your ability to program the game and create the art for it.
设计游戏的一个重要教训是，限制可以帮到你。这些限制可以是你为自己设定的限制，也可以是来自外界的限制。在专业游戏开发中，你通常会受到时间、金钱和技术等现实限制。你的创意也可能受到严格限制，比如你要制作的游戏类型、游戏必须遵循的授权内容等等。这些都会限制你的天马行空的思维，但绝不会限制你在限制条件下发挥的创造力。
An important lesson in designing games is that constraints can help you. These constraints can be limits you set on yourself, or they can come from outside. Typically in professional game development you have real-world limitations of time, money, and technology. You may also have strong limits placed on your ideation in terms of the type of game you’re going to make, a licensed property it has to adhere to, and so on. These all limit the amount of blue-sky thinking you can do, but that in no way limits the creativity you can apply within the constraints.
您可能还希望在设计中设定限制（如果这些限制没有为您设定的话），比如您想要的游戏类型，也就是游戏类型，以及您希望玩家获得的整体体验。即使在早期的蓝天设计会议中，团队成员也可以创建自己的限制，作为设定创意基本规则的方式：“不玩虚拟现实游戏”或“不玩涉及杀戮的游戏”。这样的限制必然会排除大量创意，但正如前面提到的史蒂夫·乔布斯的名言，这完全是关键所在。
You will also likely want to set limits on your design (if they are not set for you) in terms of the type of gameplay you want, also known as the game’s genre, and the overall experience you want for the player. Even in an early blue-sky design session, team members can create their own constraints as a way of setting ground rules for the ideation: “no virtual reality games” or “no games that involve killing.” Such constraints necessarily remove immense numbers of ideas from consideration, but as per the Steve Jobs quote mentioned earlier, that’s entirely the point.
注意事项
记住头脑风暴或构思过程的一些注意事项很重要。虽然有些人喜欢头脑风暴的自由性质，但这个过程有一些重大的潜在缺点，你需要努力避免。
It’s important to keep in mind some cautions about the brainstorming or ideation process. While some people celebrate the free-for-all nature of brainstorming, the process has some significant potential downsides that you need to work to avoid.
其中最常见的一个就是，那些最先发言或发言最多的人往往能被听到最多。声音最大的人有时会挤掉那些小声说出来的重要评论或更具创新性的想法。不幸的是，这既有个性方面，也有性别方面：男性和外向的人往往能掌控会议，最终主导想法——即使他们不是故意的。女性和那些性格比较安静或觉得没有必要站起来掌控会议的人往往会感到被忽视。结果，团队失去了潜在的重要观点。
One of the most common of them is that those who speak up first or most often are often heard the most. The loudest voices can sometimes crowd out important comments or more innovative ideas that are said more quietly. This unfortunately has both personality and gender aspects: males and extroverts who are comfortable taking control of a meeting often end up driving the ideation—even if they don’t mean to. Women and those who are just quieter in their personality or who don’t feel the need to get up and take control of a meeting can often feel unheard. The group loses potentially important perspectives as a result.
一个类似且相关的问题是群体思维：一种普遍的想法是，如果房间里的每个人都同意某个想法或行动方针，那么它一定是好的。但是，如果房间里的人只代表一小部分人的声音——全是男性、全是某一特定类型游戏的粉丝等等——那么被考虑的想法范围实际上可能非常小（而群体最没有能力判断这一点，因为我们看不到自己的盲点）。考虑那些你可能会邀请到创意会议中来提供更广泛观点的人：不同性别、种族、生活经历、兴趣甚至经验水平的人。并非每次头脑风暴会议都必须充分代表人类的广泛范围，但通过在这方面做出努力，你们都会更有创造力。通过将不同的声音带入你的创意并倾听它们，你可以更快地摆脱肤浅的、衍生的想法，从而更有可能得到更好的想法。
A similar and related issue is groupthink: a common thought is that if everyone in the room agrees on a particular idea or course of action, it must be good. But if those in the room represent a narrow range of voices—all male, all fans of a particular genre of games, and so on—then the range of ideas that have been considered may actually be very small (and the group is the least equipped to judge this, as we cannot see our own blind spots). Consider those whom you might bring into ideation sessions to provide broader views: those of different genders, ethnicities, life experiences, interests, and even experience levels. Not every brainstorming session has to fully represent the broad spectrum of humanity, but by making an effort in this area, you will all be more creative. By bringing diverse voices into your ideation and listening to them, you can get past shallow, derivative ideas faster and are more likely to get to better ideas as a result.
头脑风暴的另一个潜在问题是，人们会急于在一次会议上提出并确定游戏愿景或功能创意——如果有必要，可能需要一整天的时间。这是一种鼓励创造力的糟糕方式。许多人在一大群人面前发言时并不自在，但他们却有很棒的想法。即使每个人都感到自在，如果大家都坐在一起，你的创造力也会很快耗尽。当你看到想法流动变慢时，不要让人们试图强加自己的想法，而是休息一下。每个人都回到自己的位置上呆一个小时或更长时间，带着一些想法（分配的、选择的，或者只是他们脑海中的想法）。然后，大家在当天晚些时候聚在一起，看看每个人的想法都到了哪里。你不需要从头开始，也不必从你离开的地方继续。只要给人们一个机会，让他们在脑海中渗透讨论过的想法，你就会惊讶地发现有多少新概念浮现出来。
Another potential problem with brainstorming is the drive to come up with and settle on a game vision or feature idea in a single sitting—taking all day if necessary. This is a poor way to encourage creativity. Many people are not going to be comfortable speaking up in a large group but nevertheless have terrific ideas. Even if everyone does feel comfortable, you’re going to drain your creativity quickly if you’re all sitting together. Rather than have people try to force their own ideas, when you see the flow of ideas slowing down, take a break. Everyone goes to their own places for an hour or more, taking along some of the ideas (assigned, chosen, or just what’s on their mind). Then everyone comes back together later in the day and takes a look at where everyone’s thinking has led. You don’t need to start over, or necessarily pick up right where you left off. Just give people a chance to percolate the ideas discussed through their minds, and you’ll be surprised what new concepts come back.
理想的体验
The Desired Experience
最初的构思过程旨在帮助你找到并明确游戏的概念和愿景。在此过程中，你需要回答的最重要的问题是，你希望玩家拥有什么样的体验？也就是说，你希望玩家做什么，你希望他们如何进步，最重要的是，你希望他们感受到什么？
The initial ideation process is designed to help you find and clarify your game’s concept and vision. Within this, the single most important question you need to answer is What is the experience you want the player to have? That is, what do you want the player to do, how do you want them to progress, and, most of all, what do you want them to feel?
这可能出乎意料地难以确定，特别是如果你以发明家或玩具制造商的身份参与设计。它甚至可能感觉像是一个次要问题：你可能会认为先弄清楚游戏代币和规则更好。你当然可以从这个方向着手游戏设计——但在某些时候，理想情况下越早越好，你需要努力解决你希望玩家在游戏中获得什么样的体验的问题。如果你不作为游戏设计师专注于此，这个问题就不会得到很好的解决。在设计游戏时没有刻意设计玩家的体验，会导致更混乱的心理模型，更难学习和参与。
This can be surprisingly difficult to nail down, especially if you are coming at the design as an inventor or a toymaker. It can even feel like a side issue: you might think that getting the game tokens and rules figured out first is better. You can certainly approach the game design from that direction—but at some point, ideally sooner than later, you will need to grapple with the question of what kind of experience you want players to have in your game. This is not something that will resolve itself well without your focus on it as a game designer. Designing a game without intentionally designing the player’s experience makes for a more chaotic mental model that is more difficult to learn and become engaged with.
如果你更像一个故事讲述者兼设计师，那么你也许能够快速地抓住玩家体验中飘渺而又情感化的本质——但你可能需要其他人来帮助你将其落实到现实中。如果你已经建立了一个叙事结构，那么你可能已经很好地了解了你希望玩家拥有的体验类型。但是在这种情况下，你需要确保你正在设计一款游戏而不是编写一部电影。你想要的体验类型是否支持二阶设计，即玩家可以探索一个游戏空间，而不仅仅是作为观众浏览一个故事？
If you’re more of a storyteller-designer you may be able to get to the ethereal, emotional essence of the player experience quickly—but you may need others to help you nail it down to reality. If you have a narrative structure in place, you may already have a good idea of the kind of experience you want the player to have. In that case, though, you need to make sure you are designing a game and not writing a movie. Does the kind of experience you want support second-order design, such that there is a game-space for the player to explore and not just a single story for them to walk through as a spectator?
从这些总体想法和方向开始，我们将转向您必须决定的期望体验的更具体方面，包括以下内容：
From these general ideas and directions, we move to more specific aspects of the desired experience that you must decide, including the following:
你的玩家是谁？他们的动机是什么？
Who are your players? What are their motivations?
这款游戏的类型是什么——游戏中最常用的玩法类型是什么？
What is the game’s genre—the type of gameplay most used in the game?
结合这两者，玩家的幻想是什么？他们在游戏中扮演什么角色，让他们有理由和空间去探索？他们是英雄、海盗、皇帝、蜣螂、小孩，还是完全不同的东西？
Combining those two, what is the player’s fantasy? What is their role in the game that gives them a reason and space to explore? Are they a hero, a pirate, an emperor, a dung beetle, a young child, or something entirely different?
玩家会做出什么样的选择？他们如何在游戏中取得进展？
What kinds of choices does the player make? How do they progress through the game?
您在游戏中最依赖哪种互动性？您如何花费玩家的互动性预算？这主要是快速反应游戏，还是依赖于精心策划的游戏，还是首先设计为引起情感反应的游戏？视觉和声音美学是什么？
What sorts of interactivity do you rely on most in the game? How are you spending the player’s interactivity budget? Is this mainly a fast reaction game, one that relies on careful planning, or one that is designed first and foremost to evoke an emotional response? What are the visual and sound aesthetics?
本章后面将更详细地讨论这些内容及其相关内容。
These and related items are discussed in more detail later in this chapter.
概念文件
The Concept Document
仅仅提出游戏的整体概念和玩家期望的体验是不够的；你必须清楚地表达你的愿景，以便清楚地传达给其他人。跳过这一步可能很诱人，尤其是在团队规模较小的情况下。完成这一过程将理清你的想法，确保你的团队都在朝着同一个愿景努力，并帮助你向其他人推销你的设计——新团队成员、潜在资助者、游戏公司高管等等。
It’s not enough to come up with the overall concept and desired experience for players in your game; you have to articulate your vision well enough to communicate it clearly to others. It can be tempting to skip this step, especially if you’re working on a small team. Going through this process will clarify your thinking, ensure that your team is all working toward the same vision, and help you sell your design to others—new team members, potential funders, game company executives, and so on.
通常，游戏概念会在一份简短的概念文档中正式化。这份文档既是信息量大、又具有说服力：您要尽可能快速清晰地传达您的想法，同时还要说明您的游戏创意值得实现的原因。在准备设计以寻求资金或类似审批时（这一过程称为“推销”），您通常会提供与概念文档类似的结构（尽管概念文档和推销文档也会根据其受众而有很大不同）。（有关推销的更多详细信息，请参阅第 12 章“让您的游戏变得真实”。）具体风格各不相同，您可能会发展自己的概念文档形式。本书的在线资源 www.informit.com/title/9780134667607 中包含了遵循本章所讨论材料的概念文档模板。
Typically, a game’s concept is formalized in a short concept document. This is both an informative and persuasive document: you are trying to convey your idea as quickly and clearly as possible, while also showing why your game idea is worth making. When preparing a design for funding or similar approval, a process known as “pitching,” you will often present a structure similar to that found in a concept document (though concept and the pitch documents also differ significantly, based on their audience). (See Chapter 12, “Making Your Game Real,” for more details on pitching.) Particular styles differ, and you will likely evolve your own form of concept document. A template for a concept document that follows the material discussed in this chapter is included in the online resources for this book at www.informit.com/title/9780134667607.
概念文档可以以纸质形式创建，或者更常见的是，以在线文档或网页形式创建。在线维护概念文档具有显著的优势：首先，它保持最新状态，而不会变得陈旧和被遗忘（产品文档的常见命运）。此外，您可以随着时间的推移以有组织的方式向设计中添加更多细节，而不会拖累文档。
The concept document can be created on paper or, more commonly, as an online document or web page. There are significant advantages to maintaining the concept document online: first, it remains current rather than becoming stale and forgotten (a common fate for product documentation). In addition, you can add more details to the design over time in an organized manner and without weighing down the document.
概念文档应始终保持对游戏的宏观视角。随着项目的进展，概念可以且应该成为所有游戏设计文档的纽带，成为冰山一角。总体设计和概念文档本身可能会在开发过程中发生变化，因此保持文档的更新非常重要。
The concept document should always keep a high-level view of the game. As the project progresses, the concept can and should serve as the nexus of all the game’s design documentation, becoming the tip of the iceberg. The design overall and the concept document itself may change during development, and it is important to keep the document up to date.
概念文档应简洁明了，并应突出游戏的愿景。使用的图片和图表越多越好。但除了提供游戏艺术风格、世界历史、玩家进程等的简短、高级概念描述（下面将讨论）之外，概念文档还可以提供指向其他更具体的设计文档的指针，这些文档更详细地定义了游戏的这些部分和许多其他部分。这种结构使多个设计师能够处理游戏的不同部分，并允许随着游戏的进展添加不同的文档，同时保留概念文档作为设计的总体表达。在开发过程中，将概念文档作为游戏一致愿景的试金石和设计的积极组织原则是非常宝贵的。
The concept document should remain brief and clear, and it should highlight the vision of the game. The more pictures and diagrams you can use, the better. But in addition to providing brief, high-level conceptual descriptions of the game’s art style, the world’s history, the player’s progression, and so on (all discussed below), the concept document can provide pointers to other, more specific design documents that define those and many other parts of the game in greater detail. This structure enables multiple designers to work on different parts of the game and allows for different documents to be added as the game progresses, all while retaining the concept document as the overarching expression of the design. In the throes of development, having the concept document as a touchstone to the agreed-upon vision of the game and an active organizing principle for the design is invaluable.
该概念文件主要分为三个部分：
There are three main sections to the concept document:
高级概念
High-level concept
产品描述
Product description
详细设计
Detailed design
以下各节详细介绍了每个部分所涉及的信息。
The information that goes into each of these sections is detailed in the following sections.
把握概念
Capturing the Concept
概念文档的第一部分有助于快速简洁地传达有关游戏的高级信息。通常，此部分包含几个小节：
The first section of the concept document helps communicate the high-level information about your game quickly and concisely. Typically this section has several subsections:
工作标题
Working title
概念陈述
Concept statement
类型
Genre(s)
目标受众
Target audience
独特卖点
Unique selling points
工作标题
工作标题就是您对游戏的称呼。它应该能唤起人们对游戏其他部分的联想，并且在谈论游戏时应该是一个方便的称呼。一些团队在这个阶段花费了大量精力来寻找合适的标题，甚至在网上搜索可用的域名，查看竞争性游戏的标题等等。其他团队则采取相反的做法，选择一个与游戏玩法完全无关的名称（通常是出于通过使用代号来保持机密性的愿望）。
The working title is simply what you call your game. This should be evocative of the rest of the game and should be a convenient handle to use when speaking of it. Some teams put considerable effort into finding the right title at this stage, going so far as to search out available domain names online, looking at the titles of competitive games, and so on. Other teams go the opposite way, choosing a name that has nothing to do with the gameplay at all (often out of a desire to maintain confidentiality through the use of a codename).
经验表明，两种方式都行得通，而且可能无关紧要：无论你早期给游戏起什么名字，它最终都不太可能被称为商业产品。目前，你最好只找一个能捕捉到你设想的游戏的名字，并且只是一个方便的临时名字。以后会有时间进行广泛的名称搜索。
Experience shows that either way works and probably doesn’t matter: whatever you call your game early on is not likely to be what it ends up being called as a commercial product. For now, you’re better off just finding a name that captures the game as you envision it and is just a convenient temporary name. There will be time to do broad name searches later.
概念陈述
为了表明你真正理解了自己的游戏理念，并帮助其他人快速理解，你需要创建和完善你的概念陈述。这是一两句简短的句子，概括了游戏的所有重要方面，尤其是玩家体验。当有人问“你的游戏是关于什么的？”时，这就是你的答案——你应该准备好。这是你给别人留下的游戏的第一印象。撰写概念陈述看似简单，但实际上很难做好。由于它是你对游戏愿景的提炼，因此值得花时间完善这个陈述。概念陈述需要简短、精辟和易懂，它应该让第一次听到或读到它的人准确（如果不是详细的话）地了解你的游戏设计要点，为什么它与市场上成千上万的其他游戏不同，以及为什么它很有趣。
To show that you truly understand your own game concept and to help others understand it quickly, you need to create and refine your concept statement. This is a brief sentence or two that captures all the important aspects of your game and, especially, the player experience. When someone asks, “What is your game about?” this is your answer—and you should have it ready. This is the first impression you make with others about your game. Writing a concept statement may seem easy but is actually difficult to do well. As it is the distillation of your vision for the game, it’s worth spending time honing this statement. The concept statement needs to be brief, pithy, and understandable, and it should give someone who hears or reads the statement for the first time an accurate (if not detailed) idea of the main points of your game design, why it’s not like the thousands of other games on the market, and why it’s fun.
思考游戏概念陈述的一个好方法是在 Twitter 上的推文范围内表达它：在 140 个字符或更少的字符内，描述有关游戏的所有重要信息，以便对游戏一无所知的人或您自己都想了解更多信息。您不必担心字符数会超出限制，但牢记这些准则将帮助您创建陈述并谨慎选择词语，以便您的概念陈述能够最有力。
A good way to think about the concept statement for your game is to express it within the confines of a tweet on Twitter: in 140 characters or less, describe everything that is important about your game so that someone who knows nothing about it or you will want to know more. You don’t have to worry if you go over that character limit a little, but keeping in mind these guidelines will help you create the statement and choose your words carefully so that you can pack the most punch in your concept statement.
一个问题
与概念陈述密切相关的另一个有用概念是一些游戏设计师所说的“一个问题”（Booth 2011）。严格来说，这不是概念文档的一部分，但它可能出现在或来自游戏的概念陈述。这里的想法是，你可以用一个关于游戏的什么问题来解决设计问题？例如，如果你正在制作一个详细的历史模拟，你可能会问各种设计特点“它真实吗？”如果你正在制作一个关于忍者的游戏，你可能会问“它隐秘吗？”这可以适用于游戏中的一切，从字面上或比喻上，从小功能到用户界面。
Another useful concept closely related to the concept statement is what some game designers call “The One Question” (Booth 2011). This isn’t, strictly speaking, part of the concept document, but it may appear in or come from your game’s concept statement. The idea here is, what one question can you use about your game to resolve design questions? For example, if you’re making a detailed historical simulation, you might ask about various design features “Is it authentic?” If you’re making a game about ninjas, you might ask “Is it stealthy?” This can apply, literally or figuratively, to everything in the game from small features to the user interface.
《吉他英雄》及其续集《摇滚乐队》的游戏设计师 Jason Booth表示，关于《吉他英雄》的功能，唯一的问题是“这是否摇滚？”如果某个功能对游戏的基本品质没有直接贡献，团队就会将其删除。如果他们必须在两个功能之间做出选择，他们会选择更摇滚的那个。例如，在选择玩家是创建自己的自定义角色还是选择预制角色时，“这是否摇滚？”的应用方式是“这是否会让玩家更觉得自己就是那个摇滚的角色？”创建自己的自定义外观（小到眼线）当然是成为摇滚明星的幻想的重要组成部分。
Jason Booth, game designer on Guitar Hero and its successor Rock Band, said that the one question about features on Guitar Hero was “Does it rock?” If a feature didn’t contribute directly to that essential quality of the game, the team left it out. And if they had to decide between two features, they chose the one that rocked more. For example, when choosing between whether players would create their own custom characters or select between premade characters, “Does it rock?” was applied in terms of “Does this make the player feel more like they are the character rocking out?” Creating your own custom look—right down to the eyeliner—is of course a big part of the fantasy of being a rock star.
布斯说，当团队继续制作《摇滚乐队》时，他们很难确定愿景，因为他们都非常喜欢《吉他英雄》的制作，但他们“必须以非常不同的眼光重新构想产品”。结果，他们得出了一个问题：“这是加入摇滚乐队的真实体验吗？”他说：“一旦我们确定了这个问题，很多关于功能方向的潜在争论就消失了，因为每个人基本上都能看到这两个项目之间的分界线”（布斯 2011）。
Booth said that when the team moved on to make Rock Band, they had a difficult time settling on the vision because they had all loved working on Guitar Hero so much, and yet they “had to reimagine the product in a very different light.” As a result, they arrived at the one question “Is it an authentic experience of being in a rock band?” He said, “Once we settled on the one question, a lot of potential arguments over feature directions just went away, because everyone could basically see the dividing line between the two projects” (Booth 2011).
这种澄清问题（或陈述）可以极大地帮助您获得简洁的愿景并评估后续想法和功能以查看它们是否属于游戏。
This kind of clarifying question (or statement) can be an enormous help in both getting you to your concise vision and evaluating later ideas and features to see if they belong in the game.
类型
游戏类型是一种简写方式，它基于所使用的游戏惯例、呈现给玩家的挑战和选择类型，以及设计的美学、风格或技术方面。游戏类型没有官方名称，会随着时间的推移而变化，或发展出后来自行分裂出来的子类型。因此，游戏类型是一种启发式标签，通常表示游戏中普遍存在的互动类型：它是快节奏的动作游戏、更具思考性的战略游戏、情感和叙事驱动的游戏、以社交联系为主的游戏，还是这些类型的某种组合？
A game’s genre is a shorthand way of describing it based on the gameplay conventions used, the types of challenges and choices presented to the player, and often aesthetic, stylistic, or technological aspects of the design. Game genres have no official designations and morph over time or grow subgenres that later split off on their own. A game’s genre is thus a heuristic label that typically indicates the kind of interactions that are prevalent in the game: is it a fast-paced action game, a more thoughtful strategic game, an emotion and narrative-driven game, a game where social contact with others is prominent, or some combination of these?
例如，射击游戏是动作游戏的一个长期子类型，玩家通常会花费大量时间射击东西。这些游戏通常依赖于快速行动，在暴力、杀戮或被杀的环境中使用动作/反馈和短期认知互动——通常尽可能快地积极射击东西。但有许多子类型的动作游戏射击游戏的限定词几乎无穷无尽：游戏可能是“2D 自上而下的太空射击游戏”（如Gratuitous Space Battles）或“大型多人弹幕射击游戏”（如Realm of the Mad God），还有许多其他可能性。随着游戏类型的成熟，甚至有游戏会重新考虑其默认假设。Portal就是一个很好的例子：它是一款射击游戏，玩家在游戏中会射击东西——但与几乎所有其他射击游戏不同的是，在Portal中你不会杀死任何东西，而是用射击来解决谜题，而不是尽可能快地摧毁东西。
For example, shooters are a long-standing subgenre of action games where players typically spend a lot of time shooting things. These games typically rely on fast action using action/feedback and short-term cognitive interactions in a violent, kill-or-be-killed environment—usually actively shooting things as fast as possible. But there are many subtypes of shooters with almost endless qualifiers: a game might be a “2D top-down space shooter” (like Gratuitous Space Battles) or a “massively multiplayer bullet-hell co-op shooter” (like Realm of the Mad God), among many other possibilities. As a genre matures, there are even games that rethink its tacit assumptions. Portal is a good example of this: it’s a shooter in that you spend the game shooting things—but unlike just about every other shooter, in Portal you don’t kill anything, and you use your shooting to solve puzzles rather than just destroy things as fast as possible.
Portal的例子突出了讨论游戏类型的一个重要方面：虽然这款游戏是一款射击游戏，但它与其他射击游戏不同，如果只用一个宽泛的类型来指代它，很多人可能会迷失方向。设计师有时会随口说出射击游戏或策略游戏等类型名称，而没有真正考虑其后果，甚至没有考虑他们在游戏中包含该类型的哪些特定方面。使用类型名称很有用，但如果不小心，也会导致设计懒惰：如果你说你的游戏是一款策略游戏，你的意思是它有一个自上而下或等距的摄像头，或者你指挥许多单位，或者其他什么？这些都是策略游戏的共同特征，但你的游戏可能与该类型的其他游戏几乎没有共同之处。
The example of Portal highlights an important aspect of discussing your game’s genre: while that game is a shooter, it’s not like any other shooter, and a lot can get lost in referring to it just by a broad genre. Designers will sometimes toss off a genre name like shooter or strategy without really considering the ramifications, or even which particular aspects of that genre they are including in their game. Using genre names is helpful but can also lead to lazy design if you’re not careful: if you say your game is a strategy game, do you really mean that it has a top-down or isometric camera, or that you command many units, or something else? These are both common features of strategy games, but your game may have little else in common with the rest of the genre.
为了更详细地描述您的设计，当您谈论游戏类型时，不要只是一口气说出一个或几个标签。而是说出您指的是特定类型的哪些方面。例如，您可以说：“这款游戏具有策略游戏的多单位控制和动作游戏的快节奏，并将这些与休闲游戏的有趣互动和易于学习的方面相结合。”以这种方式谈论游戏不仅可以让其他人了解您正在制作什么，还可以帮助您确定您是否试图同时跨越太多类型。
To be more specific about your design, when you talk about your game’s genre, don’t just rattle off one or a few labels. Say instead what aspects of a particular genre you mean. For example, you might say, “This game has the multiple-unit control of a strategy game and the fast pace of an action game, and it combines these with the juicy interactions and easy-to-learn aspects of a casual game.” Talking about the game this way not only informs others about what you’re making but can help you determine whether you’re trying to span too many genres at once.
可能的类型的完整列表过于广泛（并且变化太快），无法在此详细说明，但以下是常见类型的部分高级列表：
A full list of possible genres would be too extensive—and changes too quickly—to detail here, but the following is a partial and high-level list of common genres:
动作：动作游戏依赖于快速动作/反馈循环。它们可能以故事为背景，但通常很少以叙事或故事作为游戏玩法的一部分。
Action: Action games rely on fast action/feedback loops. They may have story as a backdrop but typically have little in the way of narrative or story as part of the gameplay.
冒险：这些游戏具有许多快速动作/反馈循环元素，但在整个冒险故事的背景下，也为玩家提供了更长期的目标。
Adventure: These games have many fast action/feedback loop elements but in the context of an overall adventure story that provides the player with longer-term goals as well.
休闲：这是一个有争议的游戏类型，因为许多这类游戏的玩家在玩游戏时投入的精力超过了“休闲”的程度。这类游戏的特点是易于学习，更多地依赖于一些短期循环和目标，并且游戏时间往往很短。这些游戏依赖于动作/反馈交互循环，但这些游戏不是快节奏的刺激性动作，而是专注于通过明亮的图形、清晰简单的操作（例如，大而多彩的按钮）和丰富的视觉和音频反馈来实现“有趣的”交互（如第 4 章“交互性和趣味性”中所述）。“休闲”这个名称也经常被用来表示游戏是为那些不认为自己是“游戏玩家”的人设计的。虽然这样的玩家可能会花几个小时玩这些游戏，他们通常对游戏作为一种休闲消遣而不是爱好更感兴趣。
Casual: This is a debated genre because many players of these games play with more than “casual” dedication. Games in this genre are typified by being easy to learn, relying more on a few short-term loops and goals, and tend to have short play sessions. These games rely on action/feedback interactivity loops, but instead of fast-paced adrenaline-fueled action, these games focus on having “juicy” interactions (as described in Chapter 4, “Interactivity and Fun”) using bright graphics, clear and easy actions (for example, large colorful buttons), and abundant visual and audio feedback. The “casual” name is also often used to indicate that the game is intended for people who don’t consider themselves to be “gamers.” While such players may spend hours playing these games, they are typically more interested in gaming as a casual pastime than as a hobby.
放置类游戏：这是一种相对较新且经常被嘲笑的游戏类型，但毫无疑问它在商业上取得了成功并受到许多人的喜爱。在放置类游戏中，玩家只需要做出几个决定，其余时间游戏实际上是“自行进行”。虽然互动性在这些游戏中并不像在大多数其他游戏中那么重要，但这些游戏往往侧重于动作/反馈——尤其是在“点击器”类型中，玩家只需尽可能快地点击作为游戏内的主要动作——以及在解决谜题时进行少量短期认知互动，在制定策略时进行长期认知互动。浅层互动是这种游戏类型的一个主要特征，因为减少的认知负荷使玩家不必专注于游戏。即使没有或只有很少的玩家输入，游戏也会进展（通常是在玩家缺席的情况下），并在玩家返回时向他们提供积极的反馈，告知他们取得了多大的进步（例如，获得更多的金钱或积分）。早期放置类游戏（带有叙事元素） 《暗室》的创作者迈克尔·汤森 (Michael Townsend)表示，他的目标人群“是喜欢数字上升的人和喜欢探索未知的人的交集”（亚历山大 2014）。观看“数字上升”是放置类游戏的主要吸引力，可能为预期的奖励提供持续的多巴胺，至少直到这个承诺消失，玩家意识到除了看到数字上升之外，游戏没有任何实际意义。
Idle: This is a relatively new and often derided genre, yet one that is without question commercially successful and enjoyed by many. In idle games, the player is required to make only a few decisions, and the rest of the time the game effectively “plays itself.” While interactivity is not as important in these games as in most others, these games tend to focus on action/feedback—especially in the “clicker” variety, where players simply click as fast as they can as the primary in-game action—along with a small amount of short-term cognitive interaction in solving puzzles and long-term cognitive interactivity in planning strategies. The shallow interactivity is a primary feature of this genre, as the reduced cognitive load relieves the player from having to concentrate on the game. Even with no or minimal player input, the game progresses (often in the player’s absence) and provides the player with positive feedback of how much further they have gotten (more money or points accrued, for example) whenever they return. Michael Townsend, creator of A Dark Room, an early idle game (with narrative elements), said that his target demographic “was the intersection of People Who Like it When Numbers Go Up and People Who Like Exploring the Unknown” (Alexander 2014). Watching “numbers go up” is a primary attractant in idle games, probably providing a continuous shot of dopamine for the expected reward, at least until that promise fades and the player recognizes that there is no real point to the game besides seeing the numbers go up.
MMO：大型多人在线游戏的简称，此类游戏涵盖所有玩家身处一个由众多（数百或数千）其他玩家组成的世界，即使玩家未主动玩游戏，玩家的化身（通常但并不总是单个人）和世界仍会存在。这些游戏具有多种形式的互动性，其中动作/反馈互动很常见（例如，在战斗中，这是这些游戏的普遍特征），以及规划角色进展的短期和长期认知。社交互动性对 MMO 游戏极其重要，因为这些游戏的兴衰取决于它们在游戏中分组和创建非正式社区的能力。
MMO: Short for massively multiplayer online [game], this genre encompasses all those where the player is in a world with many (hundreds or thousands) of other players and where both the player’s avatar (typically but not always a single individual) and the world persist even when the player is not actively playing the game. These games have a wide variety of forms of interactivity, with action/feedback interaction being common (for example, in combat, a pervasive feature of these games), along with short- and long-term cognition in planning a character’s progression. Social interactivity is extremely important to MMOs, as these games rise and fall on their ability to group and create informal communities within the game.
平台游戏：在这些游戏中，玩家的角色通过从一个空中平台跳到另一个空中平台来推进游戏进程。玩家的主要互动是快速动作/反馈，特别是知道何时以及如何跳跃以避免坠落而死亡。这些游戏是一种动作游戏，但非常流行，因此经常被描述为一种独立的游戏类型。平台游戏至少可以追溯到 20 世纪 80 年代的电子游戏厅。它们直接的动作/反馈游戏玩法一直很受欢迎，部分原因是这些游戏很容易上手、享受，然后继续学习和精通。
Platformer: These are games where the player’s avatar progresses through the game by jumping from one midair platform to another. The player’s main interaction is of the fast action/feedback variety, particularly knowing when and how to jump to keep from falling to an inevitable death. These are a type of action game but are so prevalent that they are often described as their own genre. Platformers go back at least to the video arcades of the 1980s. Their straightforward action/feedback gameplay has remained popular, in part because of how easy it is to pick up, enjoy, and then continue to learn and excel at these games.
节奏：这些是音乐主题的游戏，游戏玩法依赖于玩家的节奏感、音乐感、舞蹈等。这些游戏可能涉及复制复杂的舞蹈或音符序列，主要在歌曲或其他节奏序列的背景下使用快速动作/反馈互动。
Rhythm: These are music-themed games where the gameplay relies on the player’s sense of rhythm, musicality, dance, and so on. These games may involve replicating complex dance or musical note sequences, primarily using fast action/feedback interactivity within the context of a song or another rhythmic sequence.
Roguelike：这种名字奇怪的游戏类型大致适用于程序化创建游戏地图的游戏。这些游戏通常（但并非总是）还具有“永久死亡”功能，这意味着当您在游戏中死亡时，您就输了，必须重新开始。玩家预计会在这些游戏中经常死亡；刺激和“致命的危险”（Pearson 2013）是吸引力的一部分。该类型以文字游戏Rogue命名，这是最早的冒险/角色扮演游戏之一，它会自动创建地下城关卡，当您死亡时，您必须重新开始。由于每次关卡都不同，因此可以多次玩游戏而不会显得重复。如今，这种称谓适用于太空探索、模拟和其他游戏。这些游戏通常依靠动作/反馈交互（特别是在实时战斗中）和长期认知的结合，通过技能和装备战略性地改善化身（角色、船只等），以应对越来越困难的挑战。
Roguelike: This oddly named genre applies loosely to games that create game maps procedurally. These games typically (but not always) also feature “perma-death,” meaning that when you die in the game, you simply lose and must start over. Players expect to die often in these games; the thrill and “deadly precariousness” (Pearson 2013) is part of the appeal. The genre is named for the text game Rogue, one of the earliest adventure/role-playing games that created dungeon levels automatically, and in which, when you died, you had to start over. Because the levels were different every time, the game could be played many times without seeming repetitive. Today this designation applies to space exploration, simulation, and other games. These games typically rely on a mixture of action/feedback interactivity (particularly in real-time combat) and long-term cognition for strategically improving the avatar (character, ship, and so on) via skills and equipment in order to meet ever-more-difficult challenges.
角色扮演：在这些游戏中，玩家扮演特定角色，通常是追求英雄冒险的个人。玩家可能以战士、巫师、海盗、商人或其他许多可能的角色体验世界，具体取决于游戏。战斗、技能提升以及有时的制作等活动是此类游戏的支柱，主要分别依赖于动作/反馈、短期认知和长期认知互动。
Role-playing: In these games, the player takes on a specific role, usually as an individual who pursues heroic adventures. The player may experience the world as a fighter, wizard, pirate, trader, or any of a number of other possible roles, depending on the game. Combat, skill enhancement, and sometimes activities like crafting are mainstays of this genre, relying primarily on action/feedback, short-term cognitive, and long-term cognitive interactions, respectively.
体育和模拟：这两种不同的游戏类型有着共同的基础。它们都以不同程度的真实度模拟外部或现实世界的活动。模拟主要体育运动（足球、篮球、高尔夫等）的游戏通常使用动作/反馈、短期认知和长期认知互动来尽可能真实地复制体育运动的各个方面。其他游戏主要依靠短期和长期认知互动来重现经营农场、驾驶飞机或建造城市的体验。
Sports and simulation: These two distinct genres share common underpinnings. Both simulate external or real-world activities with one degree or another of verisimilitude. Games that simulate major sports (football, basketball, golf, and so on) typically use action/feedback, short-term cognition, and long-term cognition interactivity to replicate aspects of the sport as closely as possible. Others primarily rely on short-term and long-term cognition interactions to re-create the experience of running a farm, flying an airplane, or building a city.
策略：与模拟游戏非常相似，策略游戏几乎只关注短期和（特别是）长期互动，让玩家体验指挥大军、经营公司或以其他方式实施战略和战术规划以实现一系列目标。虽然也有动作/反馈互动，但这并不是策略游戏的主要重点：游戏可能看起来没有视觉吸引力，但这是为了实现尽可能多地将玩家的认知和互动预算用于长期认知互动的目标。
Strategy: Much like simulation games, strategy games focus almost exclusively on short-and (especially) long-term interactions to give the player the experience of commanding a large army, running a corporation, or in some other way exercising strategic and tactical planning to achieve a set of goals. While there is action/feedback interactivity as well, that is not the main focus of a strategy game: the game may appear visually unexciting, but this is to serve the goal of using as much of the player’s cognitive and interaction budget on long-term cognitive interactivity as possible.
塔防：这些游戏与动作和策略游戏有关，但已经发展出一种为喜欢这些游戏的玩家所熟悉的特殊格式。在塔防游戏中，玩家保护基地或特定物体（如“生命水晶”）免受一波波敌人的攻击。在游戏过程中，敌人的攻击波会越来越大、越来越强大，而玩家的防御工事（即该类型名称中的“塔”，尽管它们可能以多种形式出现）会变得更加复杂。在许多游戏中，玩家可以在游戏区域的任何地方建造防御工事，从而将敌人赶到玩家选择的特定路径上。通常有一个反馈循环，玩家可以通过创建新的防御工事获得更多积分/货币根据杀死的对手数量来摧毁或升级塔楼或升级现有塔楼。这些游戏有效地结合了短期和长期认知以及一些动作/反馈互动。
Tower defense: These are related to action and strategy games but have evolved a particular format that is familiar to those who enjoy these games. In tower defense games, the player protects a base or particular objects (such as “life crystals”) from waves of opponents. The waves grow larger and more powerful during the game, while the player’s defenses—the “towers” in the genre name, though they may take many forms—become more elaborate. In many games, the player is able to construct defenses anywhere in the play area, thus herding the enemies into a particular path of the player’s choosing. Typically there is a feedback loop in which the player earns more points/currency for creating new towers or upgrading existing ones based on the number of opponents killed. These games use an effective mix of short- and long-term cognition along with some action/feedback interactivity.
当然，还有其他游戏类型，以及这些游戏类型和其他游戏类型的无数组合。例如，有动作策略 MMO 游戏（例如《坦克世界》）和休闲节奏模拟角色扮演游戏，等等。
There are, of course, other genres, as well as innumerable combinations of these and other genre designations. For example, there are action-strategy MMO games (such as World of Tanks) and probably casual rhythm simulation role-playing games, among many others.
您应该能够找到与您的游戏相似的现有游戏来帮助您定义其类型。在此过程中，请注意不要设计一款过于单一的成熟类型的游戏：制作一款与成千上万的其他 2D 动作平台游戏基本相同的 2D 动作平台游戏会让您的游戏从一开始就变得不那么有趣。这也会导致懒惰的设计，因为您不太可能推动并找到让您的游戏真正独特的东西，而是依靠类型指定来为您进行设计思考。同时，请注意不要创建难以理解或看似花哨的类型混搭。您也许真的能够创建一款弹幕式叙事驱动的战略射击游戏，但让其他人理解这意味着什么将很困难。
You should be able to find existing games that are similar to yours to help you define its genre. In doing so, beware of designing a game that fits too neatly into a single well-established genre: making a 2D action platformer that is essentially the same as the thousands of other 2D action platformers can make your game less interesting from the outset. This can also lead to lazy design, as you will be less likely to push and find what makes your game truly unique, leaning instead on the genre designation to do the design thinking for you. At the same time, beware of creating genre mashups that are difficult to understand or seem gimmicky. You might really be able to create a bullet-hell narrative-driven strategy shooter, but getting others to understand what that means will be difficult.
目标受众
在定义游戏的过程中，你需要知道你的目标玩家是谁。游戏是为哪一类玩家制作的？目标受众的描述包括他们的心理特征、人口统计特征以及技术/环境背景。
As part of defining your game, you need to know who your desired players are. What kinds of players is the game being made for? The description of your target audience includes their psychographics, demographics, and technological/environmental context.
心理特征和动机
考虑目标受众的一个重要方法是考虑他们的动机、态度和抱负。一个简单的开始方法是用具有类似玩法的其他游戏来描述那些会喜欢你的游戏的人：如果有人喜欢“游戏 x”，他们也会喜欢你的游戏。
One important way to think of your target audience is in terms of their motivations, attitudes, and aspirations. An easy way to get started with this is to describe those who would enjoy your game in terms of other games with similar gameplay: if someone likes “game x,” they will also like your game.
一种更复杂的方法是根据与游戏玩法相关的主要动机来描述目标受众。玩家动机有很多模型；其中最好的一个（也是最基于经验数据的）是由 Quantic Foundry 创建的模型（Matsalla 2016）。根据对全球近 30 万名游戏玩家的调查，Quantic Foundry 发现了六个主要动机：
A more sophisticated approach is to describe your target audience in terms of their primary motivations related to gameplay. There are many models of player motivations; one of the best—and most based on empirical data—is that created by Quantic Foundry (Matsalla 2016). Based on surveying nearly 300,000 gamers around the world, Quantic Foundry has found six primary motivations:
动作：破坏和快节奏、刺激的游戏玩法
Action: Destruction and fast-paced, exciting gameplay
社交：社区和竞争（两者并不互相排斥）
Social: Both community and competition (which are not mutually exclusive)
精通：艰难挑战和长期战略
Mastery: Difficult challenges and long-term strategies
成就：完成所有任务，变得强大
Achievement: Completing all missions and becoming powerful
沉浸感：扮演另一个人，体验一个精心设计的故事
Immersion: Being someone else and experiencing an elaborate story
创造力：通过手工制作、定制、修补和探索来表达自我
Creativity: Expressing yourself via crafting and customization, as well as tinkering and exploring
These motivations in turn cluster into three main areas:
行动——社交：包括兴奋、竞争和破坏，最终渴望成为社区的一部分。
Action–social: This includes excitement, competition, and destruction, culminating in a desire to be part of a community.
掌握——成就：包括完成、策略和挑战，最终达到获得权力的动机。
Mastery–achievement: This includes completion, strategy, and challenge, culminating in the motivation for gaining power.
沉浸感——创造力：包括故事、定制、设计和幻想，最终达到探索的欲望。
Immersion–creativity: This includes story, customization, design, and fantasy, culminating in the desire for discovery.
图 6.1显示了这些集群，包括属于（或位于）两个集群之间的权力和发现的“桥梁”动机。根据 Quantic Foundry 的说法，这些集群可以进一步抽象为更具思想性或行动导向（“大脑”或“动能”），并且更侧重于“作用于世界”或“作用于其他玩家”。这个轴让人想起 Bartle 的玩家分类模型，该模型于 1996 年首次提出，他根据“作用于”与“互动”和“玩家”与“世界”的轴划分玩家，从而形成代表成就者（作用于世界）、探索者（与世界互动）、社交者（与玩家互动）和杀手（作用于玩家）的象限（Bartle 1996）。虽然 Bartle 的模型经不起量化审查，但对于许多玩家和游戏设计师来说，它保留了一定的直观效用。2
These clusters are shown in Figure 6.1, including the “bridge” motivations for power and discovery that belong in (or reside between) two clusters. According to Quantic Foundry, these clusters can be further abstracted to being thought of as more thoughtful or action-oriented (“cerebral” or “kinetic”) and more focused on acting “on the world” or “on other players.” This axis is reminiscent of Bartle’s player taxonomy model, first suggested in 1996, where he divided up players based on axes of “acting on” versus “interacting with” and “players” versus “world,” resulting in quadrants representing achievers (acting on the world), explorers (interacting with the world), socializers (interacting with players), and killers (acting on players) (Bartle 1996). While Bartle’s model has not held up to quantitative scrutiny, for many players and game designers, it retains a certain intuitive utility.2
图 6.1改编自 Quantic Foundry 的三个动机集群
Figure 6.1 The three motivational clusters adapted from Quantic Foundry
图 6.1所示的集群存在于不同文化和游戏的游戏人群中，并与广泛使用的五因素模型（也称为“大五”）（McCrae 和 John 1992）中表达的现有人格特质研究相关。该模型包括每个人都或多或少具有的五种特质：
The clusters shown in Figure 6.1 are present in game populations across cultures and games and correlate with existing research on personality traits as expressed in the widely used Five Factor Model (also known as the “Big 5”) (McCrae and John 1992). This model includes five traits that every person has to one degree or another:
神经质：情绪稳定性以及个人经历负面情绪的倾向程度
Neuroticism: Emotional stability and how much of a tendency an individual has to experience negative emotions
外向性：一个人寻求他人积极陪伴的程度，以及他们“大胆生活”的程度，而不是更加内敛和深思熟虑
Extraversion: The degree to which an individual seeks the active company of other people and the degree to which they “live out loud” versus being more reserved and reflective
亲和性：一个人的友好和合作程度，与敌对、不信任和攻击性相比
Agreeableness: How friendly and cooperative someone is, versus being antagonistic, untrusting, and aggressive
尽责性：一个人倾向于有条理、可靠、自律性强，而不是自发、灵活或轻浮
Conscientiousness: The tendency someone has to being organized, dependable, and having strong self-discipline versus being spontaneous, flexible, or flighty
开放性：一个人的好奇心和创造力以及对新奇体验的容忍度，而不是实用主义或教条主义的世界观
Openness to experience: How curious and creative someone is, as well as their tolerance for novel experiences, as opposed to pragmatism or having a dogmatic view of the world
那些受行动-社交动机驱动的玩家往往在外向性或渴望社交方面得分较高。受精通和成就驱动的玩家往往在责任心方面得分较高（包括野心和完成任务的愿望）。最后，那些受沉浸感和创造力驱动的玩家往往在对新体验的开放性方面得分较高。
Those motivated by action–social motivations tend to be higher on extraversion, or desiring social contact. Players motivated by mastery and achievement tend to be higher on conscientiousness (including ambition and a desire to complete tasks). Finally, those who tend to be motivated by immersion and creativity tend to have high scores for openness to new experiences.
玩家倾向于选择符合自己个性的游戏。在 Quantic Foundry 的分析中：“我们玩的游戏反映了我们自己的身份，而不是逃避。从这个意义上说，人们玩游戏不是为了假装成别人，而是为了成为更真实的自己”（Yee 2016b）。
Players tend to choose games that match their own personalities. In the worlds of Quantic Foundry’s analysis: “The games we play are a reflection, not an escape, from our own identities. In this sense, people play games not to pretend to be someone they’re not, but to become more of who they really are” (Yee 2016b).
通过了解您正在创建的游戏类型（以及第 4 章中所述的游戏提供的交互类型），您可以了解并列出玩家可能拥有的动机类型。请注意，与交互预算一样，您可以使用此信息来确保您没有设置不太可能的动机组合：想要沉浸在优雅的情感故事中的玩家可能也不想花时间炸毁东西。
By understanding the kind of gameplay you are creating—and, as described in Chapter 4, the kind of interactivity your game provides—you can understand and list the kinds of motivations your players will likely have. Note that, as with the interaction budget, you can use this information to be sure you are not setting up unlikely combinations of motivations: players who want to be immersed in an elegant emotional story may not also want to spend their time blowing stuff up.
人口统计
除了玩家的心理和动机特征之外，了解他们的人口统计学特征有时也很重要：他们的年龄、性别和生活背景。一些游戏设计师会创建完整的人物故事来描述他们的玩家：“丽莎是一位四十多岁的离异女性，有两个孩子和一份她热爱的职业。”描述人口统计学特征有助于将焦点从你自己和你的团队转移到不是你的其他人身上（可能与你的态度和动机不同），但这也可能分散你对玩家实际动机的考虑。除非玩家的孩子数量或他们的职业类型对你的游戏很重要，否则最好不要在这样的细节上花费太多时间。
Along with a psychographic, motivational profile of your players, it is sometimes important to understand their demographics: their age, gender, and context in life. Some game designers create entire persona-stories to describe their players: “Lisa is a divorced woman in her mid-forties with two kids and a career she loves.” Describing demographics can be helpful in taking the focus off yourself and your team and putting it on someone else who is not you (and may not share your attitudes and motivations), but it can also be a diversion from considering your player’s actual motivations. Unless the number of children players have or the kind of career they have is important to your game, it is best not to spend too much time on details like this.
然而，除了心理因素，还有一些人口统计学趋势也值得考虑。例如，前面提到的兴奋动机会随着年龄的增长而线性下降，甚至在 50 岁及以上的人中成为“反动机”。这也许有助于解释为什么像《英雄联盟》这样的游戏在年轻玩家中比在年长玩家中更受欢迎。
However, along with psychographics, there are some demographic trends that can be important to consider. For example, the excitement motivation mentioned earlier drops off linearly with age, even becoming an “anti-motivation” in those ages 50 and over. This may help explain why games like League of Legends are far more popular with younger gamers than with older ones.
同样，竞争的积极性也会下降得更快，从十几岁开始最高，到 40 岁左右降至最低。在这段时间里，男性比女性更容易受到竞争的激励，但是到 45 岁左右，这种差异就消失了——也就是说，在那个时候，竞争已经不再是男性和女性的主要动机了。
In the same way, the motivation for competition drops off even faster, starting high in the teens and bottoming out by about age 40. During that time, men tend to be more motivated by competition than women, but by about age 45, this difference is gone—that is, it’s not a primary motivation for either men or women at that point.
完成度——即完成所有任务或收集所有东西的愿望——在各个年龄段都保持相当稳定，事实上，它始终是各个年龄段男性和女性的三大动机之一（Yee 2017）。
Completion—the desire to finish all the missions or gather all the things—holds pretty steady across ages, and in fact is consistently one of the top three motivations for men and women of any age (Yee 2017).
环境背景
某种程度上与心理统计学和人口统计学相关，根据以下环境因素来定义目标受众会很有用：
Somewhat related to both psychographics and demographics, it can be useful to define your target audience in terms of environmental factors such as the following:
他们可能使用的技术平台：专用游戏机、笔记本电脑或台式电脑、移动设备等
The technological platform they are likely to play on: dedicated game console, laptop or desktop computer, mobile device, and so on
他们有空闲的时间以及潜在的环境因素，例如“在公交车上只有 10 分钟空闲时间的通勤者”或“寻求全天沉浸式体验的忠实玩家”
The time they have available and potentially environmental factors like “commuters with 10 minutes to spare on the bus” or “dedicated players looking for an immersive all-day experience”
他们的技术或游戏复杂程度
Their level of technical or game sophistication
可能与你的特定游戏相关的其他因素
Other factors that may be pertinent to your particular game
总结
在定义目标受众时，您应该根据需要使用心理、人口统计、环境和其他因素。这值得认真考虑，以便您的目标受众概念清晰，不会随着时间的推移而偏离。在努力清晰地了解您的受众之后，您应该能够创建一个简洁的描述性陈述，例如“这款游戏的目标玩家是那些寻求高动作体验和激烈竞争并由一些预定义任务（满足他们完成任务的愿望）支持的玩家。这些玩家通常会被生活中的其他因素所打断，他们会喜欢短短 10 分钟的游戏时间和轻松的学习过程，同时还能展示他们的技能和完成的任务。”当然，根据游戏设计的细节，还可以有许多其他描述。这样做的目的是创建一个清晰但不限制性的愿景，以帮助指导您的设计，并且不依赖于不可能广泛或过于狭窄的目标受众。
In defining your target audience, you should use psychographic, demographic, and environmental and other factors as needed. This is worth serious thought so that your concept of the target audience is clear and doesn’t drift over time. Having worked to come up with a clear understanding of your audience, you should be able to create a succinct descriptive statement such as “The target players for this game are those looking for a high-action experience with significant competition supported by some predefined missions (satisfying their desire for completion). These players will typically be interrupt-driven by other factors in life and will appreciate short 10-minute play sessions and an easy learning ramp, combined with the ability to show off their skills and completed missions.” Many other descriptions are, of course, possible, based on the particulars of a game design. The point of this is to create a clear but not restricting vision that can help guide your designs and that does not rely on an impossibly broad or overly narrow target audience.
请注意，如果你对“你的目标玩家是谁？”这个问题的回答是“所有人”，那么你对游戏概念或吸引力的思考还不够。没有一款游戏是具有普遍吸引力的，如果你试图撒下如此广泛的网，那么你的任务只会变得更加困难。你的概念游戏可能具有普遍的吸引力，但其中仍存在着目标受众。弄清楚你的受众是谁将有助于你在游戏发展过程中做出决策。
Note that if your answer to the question “Who is your target player?” is “everyone,” you have not given enough thought to your game concept or its appeal. No game is universally appealing, and you only make your task more difficult by trying to cast such a wide net. Your concept may have general appeal, but within that there is still an audience in the bull’s-eye of your target. Figuring out who your audience is will help you make decisions about your game as you go forward.
独特卖点
高级概念的最后一个组成部分是一份简短的独特卖点( USP ) 清单。在日益拥挤的市场中，让您的游戏脱颖而出至关重要。您不需要大量的 USP；只需列出几个（三到五个）有意义的简短陈述，说明您的游戏如何具有独特的吸引力，即可帮助您创建更高质量、更具吸引力的游戏。当然，如果您很难想出有意义的 USP，这很可能表明您需要重新制定整体概念。
The final component of the high-level concept is a short list of unique selling points (USPs). In an ever-more-crowded market, it is critical that your game stand out from the rest. You don’t need a large number of USPs; having a few (three to five) meaningful brief statements of how your game is uniquely attractive will help you create a higher-quality and more engaging game. Of course, if you are having a difficult time coming up with meaningful USPs, that may well be a sign that you need to rework your overall concept.
思考游戏 UPS 的一种方式是：无论你认为自己的游戏有多棒，为什么有人会放弃玩他们已经知道喜欢的游戏而选择你的游戏呢？不幸的是，许多游戏设计师在刚开始的时候都陷入了这样的陷阱：他们认为自己的游戏很棒，其他人自然也会这么认为。或者更糟的是，他们认为因为设计和制作游戏真的很困难，所以它一定很好，人们自然会认识到团队投入其中的热情。但这永远不会发生。吸引玩家的第一步是吸引他们的注意力，无论是视觉上还是游戏玩法上。玩家不在乎你有多喜欢这个游戏，或者你投入了多少精力；它必须有趣并吸引玩家。
One way to think about your game’s UPSs is this: no matter how awesome you think your game is, why would someone stop playing a game they already know they like to pick up yours instead? Unfortunately, when starting out, many game designers fall into the trap of believing that because they think their game is amazing, everyone else will natural think so, too. Or worse, they think that because it was really difficult to design and build the game, it has to be good, and people will just naturally recognize the passion the team put into it. This never happens. The first step in engaging players is to capture their attention, both visually and in terms of the game’s gameplay. Players do not care how much you love the game or how much work you put into it; it has to be interesting and attractive to players.
为了确保你的游戏能够吸引玩家的注意力，你需要仔细思考是什么让你的游戏与众不同，甚至独一无二。你通常可以选择“新鲜”——也就是说，你的设计可能不是全新的，但至少是以前没有出现过的，而你只是用新的方式呈现它们。例如，你可能仍然可以制作一款有趣、引人入胜的僵尸游戏——但如果你要这样做，考虑到已经制作了大量与僵尸相关的游戏，它最好有一些真正独特的东西。一款关于拯救僵尸并反向感染它们以将它们全部变回原样的游戏可能会奏效。但诸如“这些僵尸移动得很快”或“这些僵尸是紫色的”等琐碎的表面变化不会让你的游戏脱颖而出。
To make sure your game can catch players’ attention, you need to think carefully about what makes your game different and hopefully unique. You can often settle for “fresh”—that is, aspects of your design that may not be entirely new but at least haven’t been seen over and over again, and you’re presenting them with a new twist. For example, you can probably still make a fun, engaging zombie game—but if you are going to do so, given the huge number of zombie-related games that have been made, there better be something truly unique about it. It might be that a game about rescuing zombies and reverse-infecting them to change them all back might work. But trivial surface changes like “these zombies move fast” or “these zombies are purple” will not make your game stand out.
也可以用一种全新的方式颠覆现有的游戏类型，就像《传送门》颠覆射击游戏和《Undertale》颠覆角色扮演游戏一样。在这种情况下，你可以从特定游戏类型中选取主流的游戏玩法，例如“在射击游戏中，一切都是为了摧毁东西”，并将其改变为其他内容，例如“但在这个游戏中，你射击是为了导航和解决谜题”。这比利用适用游戏类型的某些现有方面并将游戏带入新方向更难——也许是一款带有一些动作元素的叙事游戏，如果你能做到这一点，或者是一款不知何故不会成为令人麻木的点击或点击练习的放置游戏。
It’s also possible to subvert an existing genre in an entirely new way, as Portal did for shooters and Undertale did for role-playing games. In cases like this, you take the predominant gameplay tropes from a particular genre—like “in shooters, it’s all about destroying things” and change it to be something else, like “but in this game you shoot to navigate and solve puzzles.” This is more difficult to do than it is to use some existing aspects of an applicable genre and take the game in new directions—perhaps a narrative game with some action elements, if you can make that work, or an idle game that somehow escapes becoming a soul-numbing click or tap exercise.
但一般来说，你需要找到设计中真正与众不同的元素。你的游戏越新颖、越独特，你就越容易以区别于其他游戏。同时，就像融合游戏类型一样，游戏仍然必须让玩家能够识别；否则，他们会很快认为游戏难以理解，就像他们会认为游戏太过传统一样。
In general, though, you want to find the elements of your design that make your game truly different from others. The more new and unique your game is, the more easily you will be able to differentiate it from other games. At the same time, just as with combining genres, the game still has to be recognizable to players; otherwise, they will dismiss it as unintelligible as quickly as they would dismiss it for being too conventional.
为您的游戏找到一份 USP 简短列表的必要性是花时间设计游戏概念如此重要的另一个原因。如果您停留在第一个想到的想法上，那么它在任何意义上都不可能独一无二。从 USP 的角度思考您的游戏概念可以有效地了解您是否可以清楚地说明什么值得花时间和精力来开发游戏。没有一款游戏是容易制作的，要证明制作一款游戏的合理性，您需要的不仅仅是“这听起来很酷”。
The necessity of finding a short list of USPs for your game is another reason taking the time to design the game concept is so important. If you stop with the first idea you think of, it is not likely to be unique in any meaningful way. Thinking about your game concept in terms of USPs can be an effective way to see whether you can articulate what makes it worth spending the time and effort to develop the game. No game is easy to create, and to justify making one, you need something more than “it sounds cool to me.”
X 语句
一些设计师喜欢用另一种方式来思考 USP，即使用x 陈述。这有两个常用的定义，它们的目的相同。第一个是定义游戏的“x 因素”是什么——是什么让它变得特别、与众不同、独一无二？这个问题的答案通常是 USP 的简短列表。
Another way some designers like to think about USPs is with x-statements. These have two commonly used definitions that both serve the same purpose. The first is to define what the game’s “x-factor” is—what makes it special, different, and uniquely engaging? The answer to this question is typically a short list of USPs.
另外，有些设计师喜欢使用“A x B”结构（“A 和 B 交叉”——有时也被称为“A 和 B 相遇”）的陈述，从现有游戏创意中创造出全新、独特的游戏创意。例如，您可以说“这款游戏就像《全境封锁》和《守望先锋》”或“ 《GTA》和《 Undertale》相遇”。将两款游戏像这样配对，可以在看似熟悉的创意领域创造出全新的、新鲜的视角。
Alternatively, some designers like to use statements with an “A x B” structure (“A crossed with B”—sometimes said as “A meets B”) to create a new, unique game idea out of existing ones. So, for example, you could say “this game is like The Division x Overwatch” or “GTA meets Undertale.” Matching up two games like that can create whole new, fresh takes on what had seemed like familiar creative territory.
注意事项
虽然独特卖点对于您的设计至关重要，无论是以列表还是 x 语句形式，都需要谨慎处理。USP 有时会被用作懒惰游戏设计的拐杖。与 x 语句一样，人们认为如果您将其他现有游戏的 USP 结合起来（一些来自一个游戏，一些来自另一个游戏），您将创造出一个绝妙的混合体。这几乎从来都行不通。USP 必须支持连贯的游戏愿景，而不是形成不相关点的庞大集合。
While unique selling points are crucial for your design, whether in list or x-statement form, they need to be handled with care. USPs are sometimes used as a crutch for lazy game design. As with x-statements, the thinking goes that if you combine the USPs of other existing games—a few from one game and a few from another—you will create a wonderful hybrid. This almost never works. USPs have to support a coherent game vision, not form a monstrous agglomeration of unrelated points.
此外，尽管USP 中有“销售”一词，但这些主要能让你更充分、更清楚地理解和传达你的游戏设计理念。重点仍应放在游戏设计中那些能以新的方式吸引人、引人入胜的方面，而不是什么能让游戏畅销。这些都是相关的，但如果你过快地考虑销售，设计就会受到影响。重要的是设计一款能畅销的好游戏，而不是试图设计一款能畅销并且你希望它仍然不错的游戏。
In addition, despite the word selling in USP, these primarily enable you to more fully and clearly understand and communicate your game design concept. The emphasis needs to remain on the aspects of your game design that make it attractive and engaging in new ways—not on what will make the game sell. These are related, but if you move too quickly to considerations of sales, the design will suffer. It is important to design a good game that will sell, not try to design a game that will sell and that you hope is still good.
产品描述
Product Description
前面几节中概述的游戏高级概念需要由概念文档中的产品导向描述来支持。此描述概述了玩家在游戏中的体验以及支持整体愿景的游戏系统。这些通常分为以下几个部分：
The high-level concept of the game outlined in the preceding sections needs to be supported by a product-oriented description in the concept document. This description provides an overview of the player’s experience in the game and the game systems that support the overall vision. These are typically separated into the following sections:
玩家体验
Player experience
视觉和听觉风格
Visual and audio style
游戏世界小说
Game world fiction
盈利
Monetization
技术、工具和平台
Technology, tools, and platform
范围
Scope
从总体概念文档到更具体的设计文档（专注于概念文档中引用的特定领域）的指针（基于网络的链接或至少是文档引用）很有用。如本章前面所述，概念文档就像冰山一角，需要的人可以通过链接在详细设计文档中找到更多详细信息。这些文档及其内容在第7 章“创建游戏循环”和第 8 章“定义游戏部分”中介绍。
It’s useful to have pointers (web-based links or at least document references) from the overall concept document to the more specific design documents that focus on particular areas referenced in the concept document. As mentioned earlier in this chapter, the concept document is like the tip of the iceberg, with additional details available in detail design documents via links for those who want them. These documents and their contents are covered in Chapter 7, “Creating Game Loops,” and Chapter 8, “Defining Game Parts.”
玩家体验
了解您希望玩家拥有的体验是整个游戏概念的关键部分。这应该是蓝天/头脑风暴过程的主要输出之一。在概念文件中，玩家体验有自己的部分，通常仅限于几个简短的段落。这里的信息包括对玩家幻想的描述、作为游戏玩法示例的关键时刻，以及对游戏对玩家的意义的简要讨论。
Understanding the experience you want your players to have is a key part of the overall game concept. This should be one of the primary outputs of blue-sky/brainstorming process. In the concept document, the player experience has its own section, usually limited to a few short paragraphs. The information here includes a description of the player’s fantasy, key moments as examples of gameplay, and a brief discussion of what the game comes to mean to the player.
幻想是什么？
概念文档明确了玩家在游戏中的视角以及游戏提供的幻想。也就是说，在游戏中，玩家是英雄骑士、鬼鬼祟祟的小偷、星际飞船船长、努力维持家庭的单身母亲，还是完全不同的角色——一个小小的单细胞生物，还是一个银河帝国的无形领导者？这些角色中的每一个都为玩家提供了不同类型的体验，并实现了不同的幻想。
The concept document makes clear what the player’s point of view is in the game and what fantasy the game supplies. That is, within the game, is the player a heroic knight, a sneaking thief, a starship captain, a single mother trying to keep her family together, or something else entirely—a small single-celled organism or the disembodied leader of a galactic empire? Each of these provides a different kind of player experience and the realization of a different fantasy.
通常，游戏幻想是令人向往的：玩家可能想扮演但不太可能经历的角色或情况，比如成为队长、市长、勇敢的战士或聪明的巫师。有时幻想是身处困境并努力做到最好——例如在《最后生还者》中。有时幻想只是站在别人的角度：《到家》中的女孩调查自己家里发生的事情，或者《模拟人生》中你自己设计的一个家庭发生的事情。每个游戏都有自己的魔法圈，让玩家在魔法圈的安全范围内获得一种新奇、独立、无关紧要的体验。
Typically game fantasies are aspirational: roles or situations the player might like to be in but is unlikely to experience, like being captain, mayor, a brave fighter, or a wise wizard. Occasionally the fantasy is being in a difficult situation and trying to make the best of it—as in The Last of Us, for example. And sometimes the fantasy is simply stepping into someone else’s shoes: that of a girl investigating what happened at her house in Gone Home or that of a family of your own devising in The Sims. Each game makes its own magic circle and enables the player to have a novel, separate, nonconsequential experience within the safety of its bounds.
游戏幻想的另一个有用方面是 Spry Fox 游戏设计师 Daniel Cook 所说的游戏入口。玩家在开始游戏时应该立即明白他们在做什么以及为什么这很有趣。Cook 的建议是利用这一点作为工具来塑造你自己对玩家如何开始游戏以及他们在游戏中做什么的想法，并通过与潜在玩家交谈来验证游戏的概念和幻想。在这种情况下，你给玩家游戏的概念陈述，然后让他们告诉你关于游戏的事情：他们期望他们会做什么，他们会从哪里开始，游戏会如何结束——他们会觉得这有价值吗？如果潜在玩家无法开始建立一个他们可以与你联系起来的游戏心理模型，或者他们所说的不符合你的游戏概念，那么你就有一些重要的工作要做。另一方面，如果玩家立即理解游戏的幻想并将其大致按照你的设计方向进行，那么你就有了一个好的开始。请记住，虽然这是一种有用的技巧，但你应该保持非正式，不要陷入让玩家为你设计游戏的陷阱。这是对你的概念的测试，而不是逃避设计游戏的艰苦工作的方法。
Another useful aspect of the game’s fantasy is what Spry Fox game designer Daniel Cook calls the game’s entrance. The player should understand immediately on starting the game what they are doing and why this is interesting. Cook’s recommendation is to use this as a tool to shape your own thinking about how the player begins the game and what they do in it and to validate the concept and the fantasy of the game by talking with potential players. In such a situation, you give a player the game’s concept statement and then ask them to tell you about the game: what do they expect they would do, where would they start, how would it end—and would they find that worthwhile? If the potential player cannot begin to build a mental model of the game that they can relate to you, or if what they say doesn’t fit your concept of the game, then you have some significant work to do. On the other hand, if the player immediately understands the fantasy of the game and takes it largely in the same direction your design does, then you are off to a good start. Keep in mind that while this is a useful technique, you should keep it informal and not fall into the trap of trying to have players design the game for you. This is a test of your concept, not a way to get out of doing the hard work of designing the game.
就你作为设计师的优势而言，你可能首先考虑整体游戏体验，从故事讲述者的角度理解玩家的观点和幻想，或者从玩具制造商的角度，通过弄清楚如何将一组游戏机制统一到总体体验中来理解玩家的观点和幻想。无论你如何做到这一点，你都必须在设计游戏概念和产品愿景的过程中，创建一个连贯的玩家体验描述。这也应该反映（并被反映）游戏的整体概念陈述及其 USP。
In terms of your own strengths as a designer, it may be that you come to understand the player’s point of view and fantasy from the storyteller’s vantage point by considering the overall game experience first, or it may emerge from the toymaker’s view, by figuring out how to take a set of game mechanics and unify them within an overarching experience. No matter how you come to this point, you must, as part of designing the game’s concept and the product vision, create a cohesive description of the player experience. This should also reflect (and be reflected by) the game’s overall concept statement and its USPs.
关键时刻
传达玩家体验的一个重要且有用的方法是讲述游戏中关键时刻的一些简短轶事——它们发生的时间、它们如何吸引玩家以及它们给玩家带来什么感受。（您可以从玩家与您分享的游戏幻想中获得其中一些。）这些关键时刻说明了玩家在游戏的不同阶段的体验——当他们第一次学习时、当他们成为常客时以及当他们掌握游戏时——并从具有不同动机的玩家的角度讲述体验。
An important and useful way to communicate the player’s experience is to tell a few brief anecdotes about key moments in the game—when they occur, how they keep the player engaged, and how they make the player feel. (You may get some of these from what the players relate to you about the game’s fantasy.) These key moments illustrate the player’s experience at different stages of play—when they are first learning, when they have become a regular, and when they have mastered the game—and relate the experience from the points of view of players with different motivations.
为了体验这些关键时刻，请创建几个不同的玩家角色，这些角色代表具有不同动机和情况的典型玩家：经验丰富的玩家、匆忙的玩家、不确定的玩家等等。哪些角色有意义将取决于游戏概念和设计。对于每个角色，确定游戏中代表重要事件的情况：他们的第一次真正的胜利和第一次失败；当他们达到 50 级或建造第二座城堡或获得第一辆摩托车时，游戏如何以新的方式向他们开放；当他们第一次与其他玩家在线玩游戏时会发生什么；等等。与 Cook 的入门测试方法一样，不要忽视游戏的开始；许多游戏设计师认为前 300 秒（游戏的前 5 分钟）是玩家是否参与游戏的关键。你可能不需要规划所有 5 分钟的游戏玩法，但要找到你认为（稍后会测试）会吸引玩家并鼓励他们继续玩下去的关键时刻。
To experience these key moments, create a few different player personas that represent archetypal players with different motivations and situations: the experienced player, the hurried player, the uncertain player, and so on. Which personas make sense will depend on the game concept and design. For each, identify situations in the game that represent important events: their first real victory and their first defeat; how the game opens up to them in a new way when they reach level 50 or build their second castle or acquire their first motor scooter; what happens when they first play with another player online; and so on. As with Cook’s entrance-testing method, don’t neglect the game opening; many game designers believe that the first 300 seconds—the first 5 minutes in the game—is where the player becomes engaged or not. You probably don’t need to map out all 5 minutes of gameplay but find the key moments in there that you believe (and will later test) will engage the player and encourage them to keep going.
您的设计文档应该以文字和草图的形式讲述关键时刻的故事。这些可以帮助您从不同玩家的角度更全面地理解您的游戏概念，并且随着开发的继续，它们可以帮助您记住为什么做出某些设计决策 - 或者您可以针对这些角色和关键时刻测试新的选项。
Your design documents should tell the story of the key moments in text and rough drawings. These help you more fully understand your game concept from the point of view of different players, and as development continues, they help you remember why you have made some of the design decisions you have—or you can test new options against these personas and key moments.
您可能希望创建比概念文档中更多的关键时刻，并指出保存在单独文档中的其他时刻。在概念文档中包含一些精选时刻有助于读者更好地理解游戏，并为想要进一步探索的人提供指引。
You may want to create more key moments than you include in the concept document and to point to the additional ones kept in their own separate document. Having a few select moments in the concept document helps the reader understand the game better and provides a pointer for those who want to explore further.
情感与意义
玩家对游戏的体验总和就是游戏带给他们的感受。如果你的游戏没有引起玩家的情感反应，它就不会吸引玩家。这并不意味着你的游戏必须触动玩家的心弦或让他们以全新的方式看待世界，但你必须能够识别出整个游戏的某种情感成分：玩家感受到一种成就感，一种气喘吁吁地逃离灾难的感觉，甚至只是（就像在许多动作益智游戏中一样，比如俄罗斯方块）他们仍然死了，但他们的表现比上次好（或者更糟，但他们相信下次可以做得更好！）。
The sum of the player’s experience with your game is how it makes them feel. If your game engenders no emotional response, it will not engage players. This doesn’t mean that your game has to tug on players’ heartstrings or make them see the world in a whole new way, but you must be able to identify some form of emotional component to the game as a whole: the player feels a sense of achievement, of having breathlessly escaped disaster, or even just that (as in many action-puzzle games like Tetris) they still died, but they did better than last time (or worse, but they’re sure they can do better next time!).
当然，有些游戏会刻意让玩家感受到各种更微妙的情感：失落、希望、感激、包容、厌恶，这个列表几乎是无穷无尽的——正如第 4 章所讨论的，作为游戏设计师，我们才刚刚开始探索它。如果你的游戏特别依赖于情感互动，你需要仔细设计玩家的体验、关键时刻以及支持这些体验的系统，以实现你希望玩家体验的情感变化和反应。这不会自然而然发生；与游戏中的其他任何事情一样，你必须创造一个空间，让玩家可以选择在其中体验你提供的体验。
Of course, some games consciously set the player up to feel various more subtle emotions: loss, hope, gratitude, inclusion, revulsion, the list is nearly endless—and as discussed in Chapter 4, we as game designers have barely started exploring it. If your game depends on emotional interactivity in particular, you need to carefully design the player’s experience, the key moments, and the systems that support these to enable the emotional ride and response you want the player to experience. This won’t just happen; as with anything else in a game, you have to create the space within which the player may, if he chooses, approach the experience you have enabled.
与“玩家在玩游戏时有何感受？”密切相关的是更棘手的意义问题。你的游戏是否为玩家创造了任何持久的意义？想想看，即使是像《大富翁》这样的游戏也充满了意义：它教会了玩家如何致富以及成功意味着什么的特定模式。射击游戏与《这是我的战争》这样的游戏相比有什么不同？ 教战争？《看火人》、《回家》或《模拟人生》等游戏传达了关于人际关系的什么意义？3
Closely related to the question “What does the player feel while playing?” is the thornier question of meaning. Does your game create any lasting meaning for the player? Consider that even a game like Monopoly is rife with meaning: it teaches a particular model of how to get rich and what it means to be successful. What does a shooter compared a game like This War of Mine teach about war? What meaning about relationships do games like Firewatch, Gone Home, or The Sims convey?3
你可以选择制作一款意义不大的游戏，只提供一点娱乐性。（《糖果粉碎传奇》似乎除了直接的感官和解谜乐趣之外，几乎没有什么意义；它肯定没有对糖果消费提供评论。）但你有机会确定是否有一些你希望玩家从你的游戏中获得的意义。这和你的整体概念、USP 和其他玩家体验一样值得仔细考虑。
You can choose to create a game that is light on meaning and is just a fun bit of entertainment. (Candy Crush seems to have little in the way of meaning beyond its immediate sensory and puzzle-solving delights; it’s certainly not offering commentary on candy consumption.) But you have the opportunity to determine if there is some meaning you want players to derive from your game. This is as worth considering carefully as are your overall concept, USPs, and the rest of the player experience.
视觉和音频风格
理解和解释游戏概念的一个重要部分是能够传达它将体现的外观和感觉。在概念文件中，描述艺术风格的意图以及它如何支持整体概念和期望的游戏体验会很有帮助。这可以用文字定性地完成 - 例如，“游戏给人一种明亮、通透的感觉，颜色鲜艳但不太饱和”或“游戏的视觉基调普遍黑暗而冷酷，低多边形场景中灰色和鲜明的阴影占主导地位” - 只要文字还附上一些概念或参考艺术图片即可。
An important part of understanding and explaining the game concept is being able to communicate the look and feel it will embody. In the concept document, it’s helpful to describe the intent of the art style and how it supports the overall concept and desired game experience. This can be done qualitatively in words—for example, “the game has a light, airy feel with bright colors that are not too saturated” or “the game’s visual tone is pervasively dark and grim, with grays and stark shadows predominating on low-poly scenes”—as long as the words are also accompanied by a few images of concept or reference art.
如果有原始概念图像，则应直接包含在内或通过引用外部文档的方式包含进去。也可以使用参考艺术图。这是对来自其他来源（游戏、电影、杂志、书籍封面等）的艺术图的礼貌用语，您不会在游戏中使用它们，但它们在早期定义游戏外观时很有用。这种使用通常属于对他人拥有的版权资料的“合理使用”：未经明确许可，您绝不应在游戏中包含他人拥有的任何内容，但从其他来源收集参考艺术图是完全可以接受的。除了概念文档中使用或引用的艺术图之外，许多项目还会整合所谓的“情绪板”——在公告板或类似物上大型公开展示参考艺术图和概念艺术图，以便团队中的每个人都能了解游戏的基调和氛围。
If original concept images exist, they should be included directly or by reference to an external document. Reference art can also be used. This is a polite term for art from other sources—games, movies, magazines, book covers, and so on—that you will not be using in the game but that is helpful early in the process for defining the look of the game. This kind of usage typically falls under “fair use” of copyrighted material owned by others: you should never include anything owned by someone else in your game without explicit permission, but gathering reference art from other sources is perfectly acceptable. In addition to art used in or referenced by the concept document, many projects put together what are known as “mood boards”—large public displays (on a bulletin board or similar) of reference art and concept art so that everyone on the team can get an idea of the tone and mood of the game.
游戏的音频（包括音乐和音效）至少与视觉方面一样重要。有效使用声音和音乐可以极大地增强玩家的体验，补充和统一所使用的视觉艺术。虽然很难在概念文档中包含音频样本（尽管可以且应该在在线文档中使用音频链接），但与视觉艺术一样，可以使用定性语言来描述音频风格：“游戏的主题音乐简单但令人回味，用一把小提琴或类似的乐器演奏”或“游戏中的音频有主题贯穿始终的电子失真，与黑暗的视觉基调相吻合，营造出一种令人恐惧的氛围。”与视觉艺术一样，音频参考艺术可以而且应该用于让团队（以及团队以外的其他利益相关者）更好地理解音频风格和所需的整体游戏体验。
The game’s audio, both music and sound effects, is at least as important as the visual aspects. Effective use of sound and music can greatly enhance the player’s experience, complementing and unifying the visual art used. While it is difficult to include audio samples in a concept document (though audio links can and should be used in online docs), as with visual art, qualitative language can be used to describe the audio style: “the game’s theme music is simple but evocative, played on a single violin or similar” or “the audio in the game has themes of electronic distortion throughout, fitting the dark visual tone and creating a foreboding atmosphere.” As with visual art, audio reference art can and should be used to give the team (and other stakeholders outside the team) a better understanding of the audio style and the desired overall game experience.
游戏的风格指南应详细介绍这些视觉和音频元素。该指南不应成为概念文档的一部分，但应由本文档引用（最好是指向）。风格指南本身可能直到游戏进入制作阶段时才完成（请参阅第 12 章有关制作阶段的描述），但仍应在此处引用。
Each of these visual and audio elements should be covered in detail in the game’s style guide. This guide should not be part of the concept document, but it should be referenced (and ideally pointed to) by this document. The style guide itself may not be completed until close to the time the game enters production (see Chapter 12 for a description of production phases), but it should still be referenced here.
游戏世界小说
在概念文档层面，简要描述游戏的背景故事和玩家所处的世界会很有帮助。这并不意味着你应该包含一页又一页的复杂世界细节，但你应该让读者了解游戏设计所设想的世界。例如，游戏世界虚构可能很简单，如“玩家是一只试图找到回家路的变形虫”或“玩家是一名星际飞行员，坠毁在一个魔法有效而技术无效的世界”。再多写几句话来概述游戏的背景故事——发生了什么导致游戏开始——以及游戏领土的地图和主要非玩家角色的简要描述，将有助于增强对游戏产品的描述。这些也为开发过程中更详细的设计提供了起点。
It is helpful at the level of the concept document to have a brief description of the game’s backstory and the world in which the players finds themselves. This does not mean you should include pages and pages of intricate details of the world, but you should give the reader an idea of the world contemplated by the game design. For example, the game world fiction might be as simple as “The player is an amoeba trying to find its way home” or “the player is a star pilot who has crash-landed on a world where magic works and technology doesn’t.” A few more sentences to sketch out the game’s backstory—what has happened to lead to the point where the game begins—and potentially a map of the game’s territory and a brief description of major non-player characters will help enhance the description of the game as a product. These also provide a jumping-off point for more detailed design during development.
盈利
所有商业游戏都必须赚钱。过去，游戏设计师不必关心这个混乱的资本主义现实，但在游戏销售的许多商业模式盛行的今天，情况已不再如此：游戏作为一种产品的描述必须包括一些关于如何收回制作游戏所需的资金以及利润的想法。
All commercial games have to make money. It used to be that game designers didn’t have to concern themselves with this messy capitalistic reality, but in the days of many business models for selling games, this is no longer the case: the description of your game as a product has to include some thought about how it will make back the money needed to create it, plus a profit.
在将游戏定义为产品时，您需要简要定义并讨论如何销售游戏。游戏的商业模式不断发展，但您至少需要考虑以下一种（或多种）盈利方法：
When defining your game as a product, you need to include a brief definition and discussion of how you will sell the game. Business models for games continue to evolve, but at minimum you will want to consider one (or more) of these methods of monetization:
高级定价：包括玩家购买游戏时一次性支付的游戏。这是一种古老且以前典型的模式，但它并不能保证：在当今市场上，玩家甚至不愿意为游戏支付 1 美元（在美国市场），更不用说过去游戏通常要花费的 20 美元或 60 美元了。除了开发和营销预算高达数千万美元的游戏外，很少有依赖高级定价的游戏成为赚回开发成本的热门游戏。
Premium pricing: This includes games with a single price, paid once when the player acquires the game. This is the venerable and formerly typical model, but it is no guarantee: in today’s market, players are strangely reluctant to pay even $1 (in U.S. markets) for a game, much less the $20 or $60 that games used to routinely cost. Outside of games with development and marketing budgets ranging into the tens of millions of dollars, few games that depend on premium pricing become hits that earn back their development costs.
免费游戏 (F2P)：当今游戏的主要模式，尤其是在移动设备上，是免费游戏模式。这些游戏可以完全免费玩——永远免费。玩家无需支付任何费用。然而，这些游戏通常旨在鼓励玩家可以进行购买——有些游戏对此非常积极。有些游戏允许玩家观看广告视频，而不是直接购买。如果你的游戏是免费游戏，你需要从一开始就考虑如何将其与设计结合起来；这不是你可以在最后一刻添加的东西。
Free to play (F2P): The predominant model for games today, particularly on mobile devices, is the F2P model. These games may be played entirely for free—forever. The player doesn’t have to pay anything. However, these games are typically designed to encourage players to make purchases—and some are quite aggressive about it. Some allow players to view an advertisement video instead of making a direct purchase as well. If your game is going to be F2P, you need to think about how you will integrate this with the design from the very beginning; it is not something you can add at the last minute.
限时定价：付费定价模式的一种变体，允许玩家在一定时间内免费玩游戏。在某些情况下，玩家可以玩前几个关卡（或类似关卡），然后必须购买完整版游戏才能继续。这曾经是一种让人们“先试后买”的常用方法，但自从免费游戏出现以来，这种方法就不那么常见了。
Limited-play pricing: A variation on the premium pricing model is allowing a player to play for free up to a point. In some cases, the player can play the first few levels (or similar) and then must buy the full game in order to continue. This used to be a common method of getting people to “try before you buy,” but since the advent of F2P, it is less common.
可下载内容 (DLC)：与限量定价类似，有些游戏有额外的 DLC，可以单独购买，以增强游戏体验。许多开发者面临的问题是，他们提供的 DLC 是否可以合理地添加到原始游戏中，或者玩家是否认为他们保留了这些 DLC 是为了以后获得更多收入。
Downloadable content (DLC): Similar to limited-play pricing, some games have additional DLC that can be purchased separately from the game and that enhances the game experience. The question for many developers is whether the DLC they provide could have reasonably been added to the original game or whether the players perceive it as having been held back for additional revenues later.
广告支持：有些游戏是免费的，但会向玩家展示广告。这种模式通常对游戏开发者很有吸引力，因为它可以让他们免费赠送游戏，而无需设计免费功能。不幸的是，游戏中的广告收入通常微不足道；这意味着，除非有数百万人定期玩你的游戏，否则你不太可能从这种盈利模式中获得可观的收入。
Ad supported: Some games are free but display ads to players. This model is often attractive to game developers because it lets them give their games away for free but without having to design in F2P features. Unfortunately, the revenue from ads in games is usually paltry at best; this means that unless you have millions of people playing your game regularly, you are unlikely to see significant revenue from this type of monetization model.
当然，还有其他盈利模式，包括尚未发明的模式！您可能正在为客户创建游戏，或由赠款资助，或者您可能处于其他情况，其中盈利不是您的产品设计或游戏体验的一个因素。在概念文件中注明这一点将避免将来出现任何问题，并有助于完成游戏的愿景。
There are, of course, other monetization models, including ones that have yet to be invented! You may also be creating a game for a client, or to be funded by a grant, or you may be in some other situation in which monetization isn’t a factor in your product design or in the experience of the game. Noting this in the concept document will forestall any questions in the future and help complete the vision for the game.
技术、工具和平台
作为将游戏规划为产品的一部分，您需要指定开发和运行游戏所需的技术。假设您正在制作数字游戏而非模拟/桌面游戏，您将需要各种技术、工具和平台规范来开发游戏。以下列表并不详尽，但可以为您提供一个很好的起点，以定义游戏作为产品的技术需求：
As part of planning your game as a product, you need to specify the technology needed to develop it and make it run. Assuming that you are making a digital rather than analog/tabletop game, you will need a variety of technologies, tools, and platform specifications to develop your game. The following list is not exhaustive but will give you a good starting point for defining the technological needs for your game as a product:
硬件和操作系统：您的游戏必须在计算机上运行（一般来说，运行 Windows 或 MacOS 的计算机；当然 Linux 也有可能，但作为主流并不具有商业可行性）。或者，您可以瞄准智能手机或平板电脑（iOS 或 Android 操作系统）或需要虚拟现实或增强/混合现实硬件的设备。无论您做出什么决定，都会对游戏开发产生重大影响，因此您需要从一开始就清楚这一点。
Hardware and operating system: Your game will have to run on a computer (generally speaking, one running Windows or MacOS; Linux is a possibility, of course, but isn’t commercially viable as a mainstay). Or you may target smart phones or tablets (iOS or Android operating systems) or rigs requiring virtual reality or augmented/mixed reality hardware. Whatever you decide will have significant consequences for the game’s development, so you need to be clear about this from the start.
开发工具：您会使用 Unity 或 Unreal Engine 等游戏开发环境吗？工具可以为您节省大量时间和精力，但您必须知道如何使用它们。它们也有自己的成本和缺点，您在选择它们时应该考虑这些因素。
Development tools: Will you be using a game development environment like Unity or Unreal Engine or something else? Tools can save you a great deal of time and effort, but you have to know how to use them. They also have their own costs and downsides that you should consider as you choose them.
服务器和网络：许多游戏都是单人游戏，因此不需要任何服务器或网络。不过，您应该从一开始就定义这一点，并在开发过程中考虑到这一点。
Server and networking: Many games are strictly single player and so don’t have any server or networking needs. Still, this is something you should define from the beginning and take into account during development.
货币化和广告：如果您要在游戏中投放广告或支持游戏内货币化，则需要与广告和支付服务器集成。在概念阶段，您可能不需要具体了解如何做到这一点，但您应该知道是否计划将此作为产品的一部分。
Monetization and advertising: If you are going to run ads in your game or support in-game monetization, you need to integrate with ad and payment servers. You may not need to know specifically how you will do this at the concept stage, but you should know whether you plan to make this part of your product.
本地化：与盈利一样，您应该从开发之初就考虑您的游戏是只提供一种语言，还是计划在全球市场推出。如果您有任何计划将游戏本地化以适应不同的语言市场，您应该从一开始就决定并定义这一点；一旦开发开始，再进行本地化就非常困难了。
Localization: Much as with monetization, you should consider from the very start of your development whether your game will be in one language only or whether you plan on offering it in global markets. If you have any plans at all to localize the game for different language markets, you should decide and define this from the start; it is extremely difficult to retrofit localization once development has begun.
在产品规划的概念阶段，您可能不知道所有这些问题的答案，但您应该能够对其中大部分问题给出答案，并将其余问题添加到您的问题列表中，以便快速找出答案。
You may not know the answers to all these questions during the concept phase of product planning, but you should be able to give answers to most of these—and add the rest to your list of questions to figure out quickly.
范围
通过查看概念文档中的概念和产品设计部分，您应该开始了解游戏的范围：需要多少人、需要多少种不同的技能组合以及开发游戏需要多长时间。游戏需要的艺术和内容越多，需要创建和平衡的系统越多，需要为货币化和本地化开发的物品越多，项目的范围就越大。
By looking over the concept and product design portions of the concept document, you should begin to get an idea of the scope of your game: how many people are needed, how many different skill sets you require, and how long it will take to develop it. The more art and content the game needs, the more systems that have to be created and balanced, and the more items that have to be developed for monetization and localization, the bigger the scope of the project.
一般来说，你需要限制你正在从事的任何项目的范围，特别是如果这是你的第一个游戏项目。即使是百人以上的大型团队的执行制片人也会努力限制游戏的范围——如果你的时间或预算受到限制，你需要毫不留情地确定游戏的优先顺序和内容。
In general, you want to limit the scope of any project you are on, especially if this is your first game project. Even executive producers on huge hundred-plus-person teams struggle with and try to limit game scope—and if you are limited at all in terms of time or budget, you need to be ruthless in your prioritization and what will be included in the game.
详细设计
Detailed Design
概念和产品部分描述了游戏的高级计划，而详细设计部分则预测了游戏设计的一些更具体的方面。这些方面肯定还没有实现，所以你在这里所说的只是对未来的预测——因此在某种程度上是错误的。然而，这是理解你的游戏是什么以及如何构建它的重要部分。
Whereas the concept and product sections describe high-level plans for the game, the detailed design section forecasts some of the more specific aspects of the game design. These have necessarily not been built yet, so what you say here is predicting the future—and will thus be wrong to some degree. This is nevertheless and important part of understanding what your game is and how you will build it.
核心循环
我们已经多次讨论过核心循环的概念，我们将在第 7 章中详细探讨它。对于你的概念文档，你应该对玩家在你的游戏中会进行的活动类型有一些想法，特别是那些他们每时每刻都会反复做的活动：主要是战斗、建造建筑、收集花瓣，还是其他完全不同的东西？您还应该能够讨论为什么这组核心循环如此引人入胜，并支持玩家在游戏中的目标和目的。
We have discussed the idea of core loops a few times already, and we will be diving into them in detail in Chapter 7. For your concept document, you should have some idea of the kinds of activities the players will be doing in your game, especially those they will be doing the most, over and over, moment by moment: is it mostly combat, constructing buildings, gathering flower petals, or something else entirely? You should also be able to discuss why this set of core loops is engaging and supports players’ objectives and goals in the game.
目标和进展
与游戏的核心循环密切相关的是玩家在游戏中的目标以及他们在游戏中的进展方式。这包括玩家从教程到精通的旅程，以及跨越任何空间范围（例如，穿越地图）的旅程（如果有的话）。为玩家勾勒出主要的进展向量也很有用：他们的金钱、技能、声誉、魔法力量、拥有的省份、船员规模或其他维度是否有所增加？
Closely related to your game’s core loops are the players’ objectives in the game and how they progress through it. This includes the players’ journey from tutorial to mastery and across any spatial extent (for example, traversing a map), if any. It’s also useful to sketch the primary progression vectors for the players: do they increase in money, skill, reputation, magical power, provinces owned, crew size, or other dimensions?
为了支持这些进程维度，你需要为玩家构建即时、短期和长期目标。这些目标必须得到其余详细设计的支持，尤其是核心循环、叙事和主要游戏系统。
To support these progression dimensions, you need to construct immediate, short-term, and long-term goals for players. These must be supported by the rest of the detailed design, particularly the core loops, narrative, and main game systems.
这些目标和目的反过来需要支持玩家的幻想和你在概念部分概述的体验类型：如果游戏是关于成为一名刺客的，那么养刺猬可能不适合作为游戏目标。或者，如果游戏是关于建立一个庞大的帝国，你需要简要描述玩家每时每刻在做什么，这样游戏才能保持吸引力。
These goals and objectives in turn need to support the player fantasy and the kind of experience you outlined in the concept section: if the game is about being an assassin, raising hedgehogs may be a poor fit for a game objective. Or if the game is about building a vast empire, you need to briefly describe what the player is doing moment-by-moment so that the game remains engaging.
最后，如果游戏旨在支持玩家自己的隐性目标（而不仅仅是游戏本身创造的明确目标），请注意这是如何实现的。如果玩家可以在以战斗为主的游戏中成为大师级工匠，请注意这是整体潜在目标和进程的一部分。
Finally, if the game is set up to support the player’s own implicit goals (rather than just explicit ones created by the game itself), note how this is done. If a player can become a master crafter in a game that is primarily about combat, note this as part of the overall potential objectives and progression.
叙事和主要系统
如果游戏有叙事驱动，请在概念文件中简要描述。您可能希望参考前面概述的世界虚构。虽然历史或背景故事是回顾性的，但游戏叙事是关于游戏过程中发生的事情，特别是玩家参与的事件（或发生在他们身上的事件）。这里不是开发整个叙事的地方，但您应该从此处的简要概述中引用或指向可以找到详细信息的文档。
If there is a narrative that drives the game, briefly describe it in the concept document. You may want to refer to the world fiction outlined earlier. Whereas the history or backstory is backward-looking, though, the game narrative is about what happens during the game, particularly in terms of events in which the players participate (or that happen to them). This is not the place to develop the entire narrative, but you should refer or point from a brief overview here to a document where the details can be found.
同样，你还应该简要描述主要的游戏系统，这通常与游戏的核心循环相关：物理或魔法战斗、经济、生态、政治系统等等。还要注意玩家直接与哪些系统互动，哪些系统仅存在于游戏的世界模型中；例如，游戏背景中可能会发生政治阴谋，但如果玩家无法直接影响它们，那么请注意这种情况。
In the same way, and often related to the game’s core loops, you should briefly describe the main game systems: physical or magical combat, an economy, ecology, political systems, and so on. Note also which of these the player interacts with directly and which reside solely within the game’s model of the world; for example, there may be political machinations happening in the background of the game, but if the player cannot affect them directly, then note that this is the case.
交互性
如上所述，作为游戏视觉和音频风格的更精确的部分，概念文档应该简要讨论游戏将使用的主要交互形式。具体来说，玩家是否仅通过鼠标、键盘和鼠标、游戏控制器、触摸界面、凝视检测或其他方式进行交互？
As a more precise part of the visual and audio style for the game, as described above, the concept document should briefly discuss the primary forms of interaction the game will use. In particular, does the player interact via mouse only, keyboard and mouse, game controller, touch interface, gaze detection, or something else?
也欢迎简要评论一下游戏如何花费其互动性预算：游戏主要是快节奏（或更休闲和有趣）的动作/反馈、短期或长期认知（谜题、战术和策略）、情感、社交或文化互动吗？无论这些互动形式的期望组合是什么，游戏如何在视觉和声音上实现它？虽然这里不是详细描述用户界面的地方，但您应该提供一些游戏主要互动方法的描述。还包括这些方法如何支持所需的游戏体验，以及这些互动如何为玩家的动作提供足够的动词和反馈以影响游戏系统（参见第7 章和第 8章）。
A brief comment on how the game spends its interactivity budget is also welcome: is the game mainly about fast-paced (or more casual and juicy) action/feedback, short- or long-term cognition (puzzles, tactics, and strategy), emotional, social, or cultural interactions? Whatever the desired mix of these forms of interaction, how does the game accomplish it visually and with sound? While this is not the place for a detailed user interface description, you should provide some description of the game’s primary interaction methods. Also include how these methods support the desired gameplay experience and how these interactions provide sufficient verbs and feedback for the player’s actions to affect the game’s systems (see Chapters 7 and 8).
在这个阶段，整个用户界面可能还不够完整。不过，在本节中至少要提供一个屏幕模型和一个屏幕上不可见的交互列表（打字、手势或基于鼠标），以加深对游戏概念和交互性的理解。
At this stage, the entire user interface is not likely to be complete. Nevertheless, in this section provide at least a screen mockup and a list of interactions that are not visible on the screen (typed, gestural, or mouse-based) to round out the understanding of the game’s concept and interactivity.
设计游戏+玩家系统
Designing the Game+Player System
提出、阐述和完善游戏设计理念的过程是开发您希望看到并让其他人体验的游戏的重要一步。归根结底，这是设计系统的练习，游戏和玩家都是其中的一部分。通过他们的互动，他们形成了更大的游戏+玩家系统。这只有在玩家继续玩游戏的情况下才会发生，这意味着游戏是可理解和令人愉快的，玩家的体验是引人入胜和有趣的。
The process of coming up with, articulating, and refining your game design concept is a vital step toward developing the game you want to see and have others experience. Ultimately, this is an exercise in designing the system in which both the game and player are parts. By their interactions, they form the larger game+player system. This can happen only if the player continues to play, meaning that the game is comprehensible and enjoyable and that the player’s experience is engaging and fun.
在设计的概念阶段，确保你的整体游戏理念清晰一致至关重要。如果其他人无法理解你的愿景，那么玩家也会感到困惑——即使你成功地将其开发成游戏。
At this conceptual stage of design, it is essential to ensure that your overall game idea is clear and consistent. If others cannot understand the vision, it will be muddled to the players as well—if you are even successful at developing it into a game.
紧扣主题
Keeping to the Theme
为您的游戏创建可行、可理解的愿景和概念既是游戏设计的重要框架和约束，也是游戏设计的一种支架或连接组织。游戏的主题元素（游戏体验的“整体”）应该涉及游戏中的所有内容。如果某个系统或标记没有从主题中获得意义或不支持主题，则需要将其删除或修改以适应游戏。相反，通过确保您的主题在整个游戏中保持一致和体现，各个部分、循环和整体都将保持一致和统一，共同为玩家提供形成更高级别游戏+玩家系统所需的引人入胜的体验。
Creating a viable, understandable vision and concept for your game acts as both an important frame and constraint for your game design and as a sort of scaffolding or connective tissue for it. The thematic elements of your game—the “whole” of the game experience—should touch everything in the game. If there is a system or token that doesn’t derive meaning from the theme or doesn’t support it, then it either needs to be removed or altered to fit the game. Conversely, by making sure your theme is consistent and represented throughout the game, the parts, loops, and whole will all be aligned and unified, all working together to provide the player with the engaging experience needed to form the higher-level game+player system.
优雅、深度和广度
Elegance, Depth, and Breadth
现在您已经了解了游戏概念和愿景的必要性，让我们重新审视游戏中的优雅、深度和广度的概念。一款游戏拥有清晰一致的愿景，贯穿其系统、标记和规则（从整体到循环和部分），并设法避免规则中的特殊情况和例外，玩家会感觉这款游戏很优雅。它将满足布什内尔定律，即易学难精，因为玩家将能够在早期形成一个可行的心理模型，在他们继续学习和掌握游戏的过程中，无需进行重大调整，就能很好地为他们服务。学习这样的游戏在主观上几乎毫不费力，学习到的每个方面都会增加玩家的进步和精通感，玩家不必在心理上脱离游戏来考虑如何记住例外或看似矛盾的规则。
Now that you understand the necessity of the game concept and vision, let’s revisit the ideas of elegance, depth, and breadth in a game. A game with a clear and consistent vision that is carried all through its systems, tokens, and rules—from the whole to the loops and parts—and that manages to avoid special cases and exceptions in those rules will feel elegant to the player. It will fulfill Bushnell’s Law of being easy to learn but difficult to master, as the player will be able to form a viable mental model early on that serves them well, without major adjustments, as they continue to learn and master the game. Learning such a game is subjectively almost effortless, and each aspect learned adds to the player’s progression and feeling of mastery, and the player does not have to mentally step out of playing the game to consider how to remember an exception or a seemingly contradictory rule.
真正掌握一款游戏需要多长时间取决于其系统深度和功能广度。如果游戏具有一定的优雅性，它通常会将系统中的系统作为其设计的支柱。这些系统将被组织起来，以便早期的学习可以应用于（而不是被）后期的掌握。即使只有几个相对简单的系统，游戏设计设置的可导航空间（以及由此产生的玩家心智模型的复杂性）也可能非常巨大。这个空间被认为是游戏中巨大的、通常深不可测的深度。受探索规则和最终掌握游戏的激励的玩家会很乐意继续参与游戏，只要他们能够在认知、情感和互动的心理预算范围内继续扩展他们的心智模型。
How long it takes to truly master a game depends on its systemic depth and feature breadth. If the game has a measure of elegance, it will typically have systems within systems as the mainstay of its design. These will be organized such that early learning is applicable to (rather than undone by) later mastery. Even with a few relatively simple systems in place, the navigable space for play set up by the game design—and thus the complexity of the player’s resulting mental model—can be enormous. This space is perceived as great, often unfathomable depth in the game. Players motivated by exploration of the rules and eventual mastery of the game will gladly remain engaged with it as long as they are able to continue expanding their mental model within the mental budget of their cognition, emotion, and interactions.
许多游戏通过向游戏中添加更多功能（即更多与相同内容或底层系统互动的方式）来提供广泛的广度。这有时是系统深度的替代品，例如当游戏添加大量内容以试图吸引玩家而不是创建不需要太多内容创建的系统和深度时。在其他情况下，游戏的范围需要并受益于广泛的功能。这些可能是玩家可以尝试的多个角色类别、需要掌握的车辆或战斗系统，或相互作用的各种资源、经济、政治和战斗系统。许多“大战略”游戏都采用这种方法。
Many games provide a great deal of breadth by adding more features to the game—more ways to engage with the same content or underlying systems. This is sometimes a substitute for systemic depth, as when a game adds mountains of content to try to keep the player engaged rather than creating systems and depth that do not require so much content creation. In other cases, the scope of the game requires and benefits from a broad palette of features. These might be in the form of multiple character classes the player can try out, vehicles or combat systems to master, or a wide range of resource, economic, political, and combat systems that all interact together. Many “grand strategy” games follow this method.
大型游戏也可能具有系统深度。最好的游戏甚至保留了一定程度的优雅性，尽管在游戏中同时增加广度和深度几乎不可避免地会增加例外和特殊规则，从而增加学习游戏的难度。玩家必须关注的功能数量增加了构建心理模型的难度。这两个因素都限制了大型、广泛和深度游戏的优雅性。然而，想要这种体验的玩家不一定在寻找毫不费力的优雅，所以这不一定是游戏设计的失败；这完全取决于目标受众想要的体验。
Broad games may also have systemic depth. The best even retain some amount of elegance, though adding both breadth and depth to a game almost inevitably adds exceptions and special-case rules that increase the difficulty of learning the game. Just the number of features to which the player has to attend increases the difficulty of constructing a mental model. Both of these factors limit the elegance in a big, broad, and deep game. However, players who want that kind of experience aren’t necessarily looking for effortless elegance, so this isn’t necessarily a failing in the game design; it all depends on the desired experience for the target audience.
关于你的设计愿景需要考虑的问题
Questions to Consider About Your Design Vision
在回顾游戏概念时，你可以考虑一些问题，以确保你对游戏循环和部分有清晰而完整的理解，并有足够的理解来创建游戏循环和部分的背景。对于任何游戏，这些问题的答案都会有所不同，但考虑每个游戏的问题将有助于你理清概念设计。在开发游戏时经常回顾这些问题很有帮助，以确保设计保持在你想要的位置，而不是随着时间的推移而偏离。
When reviewing your game’s concept, there are questions you can consider to help make sure you have a clear and complete understanding sufficient to create a context for the game’s loops and parts. The answers to these questions for any game will be different, but considering each for your game will help you clarify your conceptual design. It is helpful to return to these often while developing a game to make sure the design remains where you want it rather than drifting over time.
您的概念陈述是什么？用一两句话来概括？这个陈述是否涵盖了游戏的所有重要元素？您是否根据游戏概念对功能进行了“一个问题”测试？
What is your concept statement—in just a sentence or two? Does this statement capture all the important elements of your game? Do you have a “One Question” test for features based on the game’s concept?
您的游戏是为谁制作的？您的受众的动机是什么？玩您的游戏的人还喜欢哪些其他游戏？是否有显著的外部或环境因素影响人们玩您的游戏的方式（例如，他们在上下班途中玩游戏或需要留出一整天的时间玩游戏）？
Who is your game made for? What are the motivations of those in your audience? What other games do those who play your game also enjoy? Are there significant external or environmental factors that affect how someone plays your game (for example, they play during their commute or will need to set aside an entire day for it)?
您的游戏有哪些关键功能或玩法方面与众不同？为什么您的目标玩家（已经喜欢这种游戏的人）会放弃玩现有游戏而转而玩您的游戏？什么会首先吸引玩家的兴趣？游戏设计中的哪些方面会随着时间的推移吸引他们？
What key features or aspects of gameplay set your game apart from all others? Why would one of your target players—someone who already enjoys this kind of game—stop playing an existing one and play yours instead? What will attract players’ interest initially, and what about the game design will engage them over time?
玩家在玩你的游戏时，体验的特点是什么？从动机和情感方面，你如何描述这种体验？
What are the hallmarks of the player’s experience of playing your game? How would you characterize this in terms of motivations and emotions?
游戏体验是否让玩家觉得是刻意为之？游戏是否是一个有凝聚力的整体，还是由不同的概念和系统拼凑而成的？
Does the experience of the game seem intentional to the player? Is the game a cohesive whole, or is it a poorly matched patchwork of different concepts and systems?
玩家在玩你的游戏时是否感觉自己精通了，或者至少感觉自己的能力提高了？他们如何知道他们在玩你的游戏时技能有所进步？
Do players come to a feeling of mastery, or at least increased competence in playing your game? How do they know they are progressing in their skill with your game?
您的游戏的艺术（视觉效果和声音）如何支持游戏概念和游戏玩法？艺术是否让游戏与其他同类游戏脱颖而出？
How does the art—the visuals and sound—for your game support the game’s concept and its gameplay? Does the art set the game apart from others like it?
游戏中的哪些系统直接支持游戏概念和玩家体验？
What systems in the game directly support the game concept and the player’s experience?
游戏使用哪些形式的互动来支持玩家的体验？是否有多余的或模糊的互动会消耗玩家的认知资源？
What forms of interactivity does the game use that support the player’s experience? Are there extraneous or obscure interactions that tax the player’s cognitive resources?
游戏对玩家来说意味着什么？游戏有内涵吗？它能激起玩家的情感吗？并非所有游戏都必须有深刻含义，但考虑这一点很有用，并在游戏测试时询问玩家，看看它们的含义是否符合你的预期愿景。
Does the game mean anything to the player? Does the game have a heart—does it engender any emotions in the player? Not all games have to have a deep meaning, but it is useful to consider this—and ask this of players when playtesting, to see if their meaning matches your intended vision.
概括
Summary
本章开始了系统游戏设计的实际方面：创建游戏概念并构思一个有意图、一致且清晰的整体。这包括通过蓝天设计提出游戏概念的过程，然后将该想法细化为您希望为玩家提供的游戏体验的连贯愿景。
This chapter has begun the practical side of systemic game design: creating the concept for the game and conceiving of an intentional, consistent, and clear whole. This includes the process of coming up with your game concept via blue-sky design and then refining that idea into a coherent vision of the game experience you hope to provide to your players.
此过程将引导您详细了解概念文档，包括高级概念、产品和详细设计部分。创建此简短文档作为游戏设计更详细方面的指引，有助于将整个设计整合在一起，并在整个开发过程中发挥统一影响。
This process leads to a detailed walk-through of the concept document, with its high concept, product, and detailed design sections. Creating this brief document as a pointer to more detailed aspects of the game design helps bring the whole design together and acts as a unifying influence on it throughout development.
没有必要从概念阶段和整体愿景开始，但没有它，您就无法真正设计或开发游戏。除非您了解所构建内容的框架，否则您的设计和开发工作将陷入困境。因此，许多游戏设计师首先着手概念。但如果您认为自己更像是发明家或玩具制造商而不是讲故事的人，那么这对您来说可能不是一个自然的起点。没关系——只需确保您已完成本章中的步骤来创建和澄清您的愿景，然后再开始开发游戏。
It is not necessary to start with the concept stage and the vision of the whole, but you cannot really design or develop a game without it. Until you understand the framework for what you are building, you will be wandering in your design and development efforts. Many game designers therefore attack the concept first. But if you see yourself more as an inventor or a toymaker than a storyteller, this may not seem like a natural starting place to you. That’s okay—just make sure you have gone through the steps in this chapter to create and clarify your vision before you jump into developing your game.
1. 1997 年，史蒂夫·乔布斯说：“人们认为专注意味着对你必须专注的事情说‘是’。但那根本不是它的意思。它意味着对其他一百个好主意说‘不’。你必须仔细挑选。事实上，我对我们没有做的事情和我做过的事情一样感到自豪。创新就是对 1,000 件事说‘不’”（乔布斯 1997 年）。
1. In 1997, Steve Jobs said, “People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying ‘no’ to 1,000 things” (Jobs 1997).
2.回想一下统计学家乔治·博克斯 (George Box) 的名言：“所有模型都是错误的，但有些模型是有用的”(Box and Draper 1987)。
2. Recall the aphorism by statistician George Box that “all models are wrong, but some are useful” (Box and Draper 1987).
3.威尔·赖特 (Will Wright) 是《模拟城市》和《模拟人生》等开创性游戏的设计师，他在 2001 年告诉我， 《模拟人生》最初的“含义”之一是时间是我们拥有的唯一不可再生资源。我们总能赚到更多的钱，但永远无法赚到更多的时间。在这款游戏中，随着你购买的东西越来越多，你的模拟人生花时间修理东西而不是做其他事情的可能性也越来越大——实际上，他们会被他们的东西所拥有，而不是相反。诚然，这是一个许多人没有理解的微妙信息，尽管许多玩家确实感受到了它的变化。
3. Will Wright, designer of ground-breaking games like SimCity and The Sims, said to me in 2001 that part of the original “meaning” of The Sims was that time is the only nonrenewable resource we have. We can always get more money, but we can never get more time. In that game, as you purchased more things, there was a greater probability that your Sims would be spending their time fixing something rather than doing anything else—in very real effect, they would become owned by their things rather than the reverse. This is admittedly a subtle message many people did not get, though variations on it did come through to many players.
第七章
CHAPTER 7
创建游戏循环
CREATING GAME LOOPS
由各部分之间循环交互组成的系统是产生互动游戏体验的主要方式。在本章中，我们将重新讨论循环（第 2 章“定义系统”中首次介绍），包括重新审视游戏设计中的四个主要循环（第 4 章“互动性和趣味性”中介绍）。
Systems consisting of looping interactions between parts are the primary means of generating the interactive gameplay experience. In this chapter we revisit loops (first introduced in Chapter 2, “Defining Systems”), including a new look at the four principal loops in game design (introduced in Chapter 4, “Interactivity and Fun”).
本章还定义了主要的游戏系统循环类型并讨论了一些示例。接下来讨论了与系统游戏循环相关的目标、工具和问题以及如何创建和记录游戏系统。
This chapter also defines the main kind of game system loops and discusses some examples. This is followed by a discussion of the goals, tools, and issues related to systemic game loops and how to create and document your game systems.
大于各部分之和
More Than the Sum of the Parts
在第 1 章“系统基础”中，我们讨论了不同类型的思维，以及统一整体的概念，即整体不同于或大于各部分之和。这是系统思维和系统设计背后的核心概念之一：通过将各部分连接在一起形成循环，我们可以创建新兴整体，这些整体不仅仅是各部分的简单叠加，而且具有任何部分本身都无法找到的全新且极具吸引力的特性。
In Chapter 1, “Foundations of Systems,” we discussed different kinds of thinking and the idea of a unified whole being other than, or more than, the sum of its parts. This is one of the central notions behind systems thinking and systemic design: that by connecting parts together to form loops, we can create emergent wholes that are not simply the additive compound of the parts but that have entirely new and ultimately engaging properties not found in any of the parts on their own.
在本章中，我们将详细探讨如何通过行为将各个部分以不同的方式连接在一起，从而形成支持并从真正意义上创建整体的循环，第 6 章“设计整体体验”中讨论了这一概念。在第 8 章“定义游戏部分”中，我们将介绍如何构造各个部分以便构建这些循环。本章位于系统设计过程的中间，就像循环位于各个部分和创建的总体整体之间一样。因此，虽然本书是线性的，但本章与第 6 章和第 8章（分别介绍整体和部分）相互配合，就像系统必须相互配合才能正常工作一样。
In this chapter, we explore in detail how connecting parts together in different ways, via their behaviors, creates the loops that support and in a very real sense create the whole discussed in Chapter 6, “Designing the Whole Experience.” In Chapter 8, “Defining Game Parts,” we cover how to construct parts to be able to build these loops. This chapter sits in the middle of the systemic design process, much as loops sit between individual parts and the created aggregate whole. As such, while the book is linear, this chapter works together with Chapters 6 and 8 (covering wholes and parts, respectively), much as a system has to loop together to work.
在游戏开发圈中，创建有效循环以构建理想的整体体验通常被称为“系统设计”。虽然有意创建系统远不止制作战斗系统或制作系统，但正是这些系统推动了游戏设计和玩家体验。通过从有意识的系统角度进行游戏设计，您可以创建更好的系统和更具吸引力的游戏。
Creating effective loops from interacting parts in order to construct a desired whole experience is often referred to as “systems design” in game development circles. While creating systems intentionally includes far more than just making a combat system or crafting system, it is these kinds of systems that drive the game design and the player’s experience. By approaching game design from an intentional, systemic point of view, you can create better systems and more engaging games.
循环简要回顾
A Brief Review of Loops
回想一下第 2 章，零件的集合可以是简单的、复杂的或复杂的：那些实际上不相互影响的零件就像碗里的水果，彼此相邻，没有显著的影响。那些线性连接形成的过程可能很复杂（参见图 2.5），但你需要零件之间的相互作用，这些相互作用会循环回自身，从而形成复杂的系统（参见图 2.6）。零件形成循环的这一特性使得能够创造出突发效应，并且就我们的目的而言，能够创造出有趣的游戏玩法。
Recall from Chapter 2 that collections of parts can be simple, complicated, or complex: those that don’t really affect each other are like fruit in a bowl, sitting by one another without significant effects. Those connected linearly form processes that may be complicated (refer to Figure 2.5), but you need interactions between parts that loop back on themselves to make complex systems (refer to Figure 2.6). This characteristic of parts forming loops is what enables the creation of emergent effects and, for our purposes, interesting gameplay.
强化和平衡循环
Reinforcing and Balancing Loops
循环结构分为两大类：第一类是相互作用强化了循环内各部分的状态，例如银行账户余额的利息收入（参见图 2.7），但也强化了看似负面的事情，例如疾病在人群中的传播。也就是说，强化循环有时被称为“正反馈”循环，但重要的是要记住，这些循环的作用是强化各部分状态所代表的质量；这种影响可能是积极的，也可能是消极的。
Looping structures fall into two broad categories: the first is those where the interactions reinforce the state of the parts within the loop, such as earning interest on a bank account balance (refer to Figure 2.7)—but also seemingly negative things, like the spread of a disease through a population. That is, reinforcing loops are sometimes called “positive feedback” loops, but it’s important to remember that what these loops do is reinforce the quality represented by the state of the parts; this effect may be either positive or negative.
第二种回路是平衡回路。在这些回路中，一个部分对另一个部分的影响最终导致所有部分接近平衡点。恒温器或烤箱就是一个常见示例：由于烤箱当前温度与所需设置之间存在温差，因此烤箱会升温，需要施加的热量会减少。最终，温差接近于零，几乎不需要施加任何额外热量（参见图 2.8）。其他示例包括捕食者和猎物如何在生态中相互平衡，以及如何在许多 RPG 游戏中增加获得新级别所需的点数来平衡获得该级别所需的时间。
The second kind of loop is the balancing loop. In these loops, the effect of one part on another eventually causes all the parts to approach a balance point. A thermostat or an oven is a common example: as the oven heats up due to a temperature gap between its current temperature and the desired setting, less heat has to be applied. Eventually the gap approaches zero, and little or no additional heat needs to be applied (refer to Figure 2.8). Other examples include how predators and prey balance each other in ecologies and how increasing the points needed to gain a new level in many RPGs balances the time it takes to acquire that level.
大多数平衡回路（尤其是在游戏中）都会导致动态平衡而非静态平衡。第 1 章（参见图 1.7）和第 2 章（参见图 2.4）中所示的机械旋转调速器就是动态平衡回路的一个很好的物理示例：当油门打开时，发动机旋转得更快，这会导致重物向外飞出，这反过来又导致油门关闭 - 这会导致发动机旋转得更慢，从而导致重物下降，这再次打开油门。当发动机运转时，油门继续打开和关闭，重物上升和下降，使发动机保持可接受范围内的动态平衡（既不会太快也不会太慢）。
Most balancing loops, particularly in games, result in dynamic rather than static balance. The mechanical spinning governor shown in Chapter 1 (refer to Figure 1.7) and Chapter 2 (refer to Figure 2.4) is a good physical example of a dynamic balancing loop: as the throttle opens, the engine spins faster, which causes the weights to fly outward, which in turn causes the throttle to close—which causes the engine to spin more slowly, thus causing the weights to fall, which opens the throttle again. As the engine operates, the throttle continues to open and close, and the weights rise and fall, keeping the engine in a dynamic balance within an acceptable range (neither too fast nor too slow).
在游戏设计中使用循环
强化循环和平衡循环具有不同类型的整体效果，可用于游戏设计。强化循环通过创造失控或“富人越来越富”的情况来奖励获胜者。在游戏大富翁中，拥有更多钱可以让你购买更多财产，从而让你赚到更多钱。这会在玩家之间产生分歧，这种分歧可能很有用，但也会破坏获胜和失败玩家的参与度：对于获胜者来说，随着差距扩大，他们必须越来越不仔细地关注游戏以保持获胜。对于失败者来说，他们能够获胜的选择越来越少。对于两者而言，游戏空间都会崩溃到玩家需要做出的决定更少（会显著影响游戏状态的选择更少）的地步，游戏不再具有心理吸引力，因此不再有趣。
Reinforcing and balancing loops have different kinds of overall effects that can be used in game design. Reinforcing loops reward winners by creating runaway, or “rich get richer,” situations. In the game Monopoly, having more money lets you buy more property, which leads to your gaining more money. This creates a divergence between players that can be useful but can also destroy the engagement for both winning and losing players: for those winning, as the gap widens, they have to attend less and less carefully to the game to keep winning. For the losers, they have fewer and fewer options that will enable them to win. For both, the gameplay space collapses to the point where the player has fewer decisions to make (fewer choices that will affect the state of the game significantly), the game ceases to be psychologically engaging, and thus it is no longer fun.
平衡循环减少了玩家之间的差异：他们可能会原谅失败者或惩罚胜利者，或两者兼而有之，以保持双方的竞争。许多游戏都有轮流机制，当一个人或一个团队得分时，另一个人或团队就会获得优势——控制球，就像美式足球和篮球一样。在《电力网》中，处于最佳位置的玩家最后出场，形成了一个持续的动态平衡循环，抵消了游戏中赚钱和购买更好的发电厂和城市的其他强化循环。
Balancing loops decrease the difference between players: they may forgive losers or punish winners, or some combination, in order to keep both in competition. Many games have a turn-taking mechanic whereby when one person or team scores, the other is given an advantage—control of the ball, as in American football and basketball. In Power Grid, the player in the best position goes last, creating an ongoing dynamic balancing loop that counteracts the other reinforcing loops of gaining money and buying better power plants and cities in the game.
零件作为循环组件
Parts as Loop Components
如第 2 章所述，循环中的部分承担着不同的角色，对象也通过部分的行为在它们之间传递。了解这些以及它们如何创建功能循环至关重要；这是构建游戏系统的基础。
As discussed in Chapter 2, parts within loops take on different roles, along with objects passed between them via the parts’ behaviors. It is vital that you understand these and how they create functional loops; this is what building game systems is based on.
一般来说，资源是在循环中在各部分之间传递的对象。它们是游戏中的代币，如第 3 章“游戏和游戏设计的基础”中所述——代表性游戏中用作“名词”的物体。资源可能是给供应商的金币、为财产支付的钱、用于施放法术的法力点或浴缸中的水。一般来说，游戏中可数的任何东西都是资源，尤其是如果它是在游戏中创建、销毁、存储或交换的。我们将在第 8 章中更详细地讨论资源。
Resources are, generally speaking, objects passed between parts in a loop. They are in-game tokens, as discussed in Chapter 3, “Foundations of Games and Game Design”—representative objects used in the game as its “nouns.” A resource may be gold given to a vendor, money paid for property, mana points used to cast a spell, or water in a bathtub. Generally speaking, anything that is countable in a game is a resource, especially if it is created, destroyed, stored, or exchanged within the game. We will discuss resources in more detail in Chapter 8.
资源可以是简单的，也可以是复杂的。简单的资源，如黄金、木材和法力，本质上是元素和商品化的：一块金币不会分解成不同类型的小块，一块金币和另一块金币一样好。复杂的资源是由简单资源组合而成的，可能具有不同的属性（通常由游戏指定，而不是自行出现）。一把剑可以用简单的木材和金属资源组装而成，然后这把剑可以使用、出售、储存等等，它可能具有与另一把建造的剑不同的属性。
Resources can be simple or complex. Simple resources like gold, wood, and mana, are in essence elemental and commodified: a gold piece doesn’t break down into smaller parts of different types, and one gold piece is as good as another. Complex resources are assembled from the combination of simpler ones and may have different properties (typically assigned by the game rather than being emergent on their own). A sword may be assembled out of simple wood and metal resources, and then the sword can be used, sold, stored, and so on, and it may have different properties from another constructed sword.
还可以建立资源生产链，例如木材和金属可以制成剑和盔甲，将它们添加到征兵中可以为您提供一支军队——它本身就是复杂的资源。许多以制作为特色的游戏（例如，Terraria或Banished）通过拥有不同资源的长链组合来创造大量的系统深度，从而可以创建功能越来越强大且功能越来越强大的物品。
It’s possible to build up production chains of resources, too, such that wood and metal become swords and armor, and adding those to conscripts gives you an army—its own complex resource. Many games that feature crafting (for example, Terraria or Banished) create a great deal of systemic depth by having long chains of combinations of different resources that enable the creation of increasingly functional and powerful objects.
货币是一种资源，通常在循环中在各部分之间传递。大多数资源和货币之间的主要区别在于，非货币资源在任何转换或交易中都会被消耗：您可能使用木材和金属作为资源在制作系统中制造武器，但这样做会消耗（或转换）木材和金属。货币资源被交换但不会被消耗：当玩家用黄金购买武器时，黄金不会变成武器；玩家从其处购买武器的人可能会将黄金用作货币，以满足自己的其他需求。在许多游戏经济中，黄金只是消失在水槽中，如图 2.3所示，并在本章后面讨论，但就模拟而言，黄金被假定已花在了其他东西上。
Currencies are a type of resource often passed between parts in a loop. The key difference between most resources and currencies is that non-currency resources are consumed in any conversion or transaction: you might use wood and metal as resources to create a weapon in a crafting system, but the wood and metal are consumed (or converted) in doing so. A currency resource is exchanged but not consumed: when the player pays gold for a weapon, the gold does not become the weapon; the person from whom the player purchased the weapon presumably uses the gold as currency for some other need of his own. In many game economies, the gold simply vanishes in a sink, as shown in Figure 2.3 and as discussed later in this chapter, but in terms of the simulation, it is assumed to have been spent on something else.
资源来源是指资源的来源。这可能是某个特定的地方或部分，例如金矿是黄金的来源，也可能是概念性的，例如杀死怪物是经验值的来源。在许多游戏中，资源是凭空创造的。虽然你可以模拟地下有多少黄金以及需要多长时间才能开采出来，但除非这是你的游戏的重点，否则它只会增加游戏的认知负担，而不会让游戏变得更有趣。
Sources are where resources come from. This might be some specific place or part, like a gold mine being a source for gold, or conceptual, like killing monsters being a source for experience points. In many games, sources create resources ex nihilo—out of nothing. While you could model how much gold is contained in the ground and how long it will take to remove it, unless that’s the point of your game, it would only add cognitive load to your game without making it more enjoyable.
库存是资源的容器。1资源以一定的速率从其来源（或从另一个库存）流向库存，直到达到某个限制（参见图 2.2）。库存的状态是库存是指在任意时刻所含资源的总量，其行为是指从库存流向系统中另一部分的速率。库存中的资源可能是银行账户中的资金、角色的生命值、城镇的人口等等。有些库存有最大限额（例如浴缸中的水量），而有些则没有（例如银行账户中可以拥有的金额）。
Stocks are containers for resources.1 Resources flow from their source (or from another stock) to a stock at a certain rate until some limit is reached (refer to Figure 2.2). The stock’s state is the amount of a resource it contains at any given moment, and its behavior is the rate of flow from it to another part in the system. The resource in the stock might be money in a bank account, hit points on a character, the population of a town, and so on. Some stocks have a maximum limit (like the water in a bathtub), while others don’t (like the amount of money you can have in a bank account).
转换器是游戏中的对象或过程，用于将一种资源转换为另一种资源或不同类型的对象。请注意，原始资源在转换过程中消失，而新资源则被创建。转换器是游戏结构中常见的基本动词类型：表示某物如何从一种状态转变为另一种状态。
Converters are objects or processes in a game that transform, or convert, one kind of resource into another or into a different sort of object. Note that the original resource vanishes as part of the conversion, while the new resource is created. Converters are a common basic type of verb in a game’s structure: how something goes from being one thing to another.
转换器可以像魔盒一样抽象和简单，一边装着铁块，另一边装着钢（另一种简单资源）或剑（一种复杂资源）。或者，这个过程可能更复杂，有多个输入和输出；制造一把剑可能需要金属、木材、工具、技能和时间——所有可能的游戏内资源——它们既能生产剑，也能生产废料（炉渣、热量等）。更详细的转换过程可能会提供更多的游戏性（玩家如何处理铁厂周围堆积的废料？），或者它可能是一个不必要的细节，只会增加玩家的心理负担，而不会提供任何真正的游戏价值。这是你在设计系统和游戏时需要决定的事情。
A converter can be as abstract and simple as a magic box that takes lumps of iron in one side and puts out steel (another simple resource) or a sword (a complex resource) on the other. Or, the process might be more complex, with multiple inputs and outputs; to make a sword might require metal, wood, tools, skill, and time—all possible in-game resources—which produce both the sword and waste (slag, heat, and so on). A more detailed conversion process may provide more gameplay (how does the player deal with the buildup of waste around the ironworks?), or it may be an unnecessary detail that only adds to the player’s mental load and doesn’t provide any real gameplay value. This is something you need to decide as you design the system and the game.
决策者或决策点是系统中逻辑分支的表示，其中流程可能朝一个方向或另一个方向进行，具体取决于内部逻辑、给定资源的数量或其他外部条件。您希望将决策者的条件保持在尽可能本地化的位置，即尽可能接近其组织级别。有时，决策点将取决于系统层次结构中更高或更低级别的条件，但应避免比这更大的层次距离，以免使整个系统更加脆弱，如本章后面所述。
Deciders, or decision points, are representations of logical branches in a system, where a flow may go one way or another, depending on internal logic, the amount of a given resource, or other external conditions. You want to keep the conditions for a decider as local to the part as possible—that is, as close to its level of organization as possible. Sometimes a decision point will depend on conditions at one level higher or lower in the system hierarchy, but greater hierarchical distance than this should be avoided to avoid making the overall system more brittle, as explained later in this chapter.
水槽与源头相反：资源流向水槽。在某些情况下，源头被称为水龙头，水槽被称为排水管——但我们不关心资源（例如水）来自哪里，只要它从水龙头流出即可。我们也不关心它流向哪里，只要它流入排水管即可。2
Sinks are the opposite of sources: resources flow out to them. In some contexts, sources are called faucets, and sinks are called drains—but we don’t care where the resource (for example, water) comes from as long as it comes out of the faucet. And we don’t care where it goes as long as it goes down the drain.2
图像
如图7.1所示，循环系统中的组件（源、存量、转换器、决策器和接收器）通常用特定的、类似炼金术的图像表示：向上的三角形表示源，圆圈表示存量，中间有一条线的三角形表示转换器、菱形表示决策者、向下的三角形表示接收器。库存量可以用单独的资源标记来显示，也可以用阴影来表示库存的充裕度，或者用其他方式来显示。这种特殊的图像是从在线系统图表工具Machinations的作者 Joris Dormans (Adams and Dormans 2012) 那里借鉴而来的。该工具中的图像和功能比这里显示的要详细得多，但无需全部学习即可在创建系统和系统图时运用这些概念。这些图形绝不是通用的或规定性的（请注意，图 2.4中使用的“转换器”图标与此处使用的不同），但它们在许多情况下都很有用。
As shown in Figure 7.1, the components within a looping system—sources, stocks, converters, deciders, and sinks are often shown with a particular, quasi-alchemical iconography: the upward-pointing triangle for sources, circles for stocks, a triangle with a line through it for converters, diamond for deciders, and downward-pointing triangles for sinks. The amount in a stock may be shown as individual resource tokens, by shading depicting how full the stock is, or by some other means. This particular iconography is adopted from Joris Dormans (Adams and Dormans 2012), the author of the online system-diagramming tool Machinations. The iconography and functionality in that tool is quite a bit more detailed than what is shown here, but it’s not necessary to learn all of it to make use of these concepts in creating systems and system diagrams. These graphics are by no means universal or prescriptive (note that the “converter” icon used in Figure 2.4 is different from the one used here), but they are useful in many cases.
图 7.1源、存量、转换器和接收器的常见图标以及它们之间的流动。本章将探讨此类图表的功能含义
Figure 7.1 Common iconography for sources, stocks, converters, and sinks and flow between them. The functional meaning of diagrams like this is explored in this chapter
四个主要循环
The Four Principal Loops
基于强化循环和平衡循环的概念，牢记游戏设计师需要关注的四种主要概念循环是很有帮助的：
Building on the concepts of reinforcing and balancing loops, it’s useful to keep in mind four principal kinds of conceptual loops that as game designers have to be concerned about:
游戏的模型循环
The game’s model loop
玩家的心理循环
The player’s mental loop
交互循环
The interactive loop
设计师的循环
The designer’s loop
这些已在前面的章节中讨论过，我们将在这里再次引用它们，以便更具体地讨论游戏设计中的循环。
These have been discussed in earlier chapters, and we will reference them again here as a way of leading into a more specific discussion of loops within a game design.
游戏的模型循环
The Game’s Model Loop
正如第 3 章和本章所讨论的，游戏有自己的内部世界模型。这个模型必然是动态和循环的，以便玩家可以与之互动；如果模型是静态或线性连接的，就不会有互动性和游戏性。游戏的动态模型创造了玩家体验的游戏世界，也创造了游戏空间。如果游戏世界中只有少数可行路径，那么游戏的概率空间就会很狭窄；玩家几乎没有任何有意义的决定可做。当这种情况发生时，最终就没有游戏性，没有参与度，也没有乐趣。通过二阶设计开发游戏模型为玩家探索创造了空间，从而建立了参与度和乐趣。
As examined in Chapter 3—and also this chapter—a game has its own internal model of the world. This model is necessarily dynamic and looping so that the player can interact with it; if the model were static or linearly connected, there would be no interactivity and no gameplay. The game’s dynamic model is what creates the game world as experienced by the player, and it is what creates the space for gameplay. If there are only a few viable paths through the game world, then the probability space for the game is narrow; the player has few if any meaningful decisions to make. When this happens, there is ultimately no gameplay, there is no engagement, and there is no fun. Developing the game’s model via second-order design creates the space for player exploration, and thus sets up engagement and fun.
游戏的世界模型是设计师定义的所有游戏系统的组合。我们将研究创建此模型的不同类型的系统。广义上讲，它们由引擎、经济和生态代表。从这些系统，我们得到许多不同类型的常见游戏系统，例如进程、战斗、库存、技能、任务和其他系统。
The game’s model of the world is the combination of all the game systems as defined by the designer. We will examine different kinds of systems that create this model. Broadly speaking, they are represented by engines, economies, and ecologies. From these, we get many different kinds of common game systems, such as progression, combat, inventory, skill, quest, and other systems.
玩家的心理循环
The Player’s Mental Loop
在第 4 章中，我们探讨了玩家的心理模型。这源于玩家在理解游戏内部模型时创建的心理循环结构。与游戏模型一样，玩家的心理模型也是动态和循环的，而不是静态或线性的。
In Chapter 4 we explored the player’s mental model. This emerges from the mental looping structures that the player creates in building an understanding of the game’s internal model. Like the game model, the player’s mental model is also dynamic and looping, not static or linear.
这个模型必须由玩家在体验游戏时建立（同时还要保持他们的参与度），并且需要与游戏的内部模型紧密匹配。如果玩家在游戏中的行为产生了意想不到的——或者更糟的是随机的——效果，玩家将无法建立或验证他们的心理模型。在这种情况下，他们的体验变得毫无意义，没有吸引力。
This model has to be built by the player as they experience the game (while still keeping them engaged), and it needs to match closely with the game’s internal model. If the player’s actions in the game have unexpected—or worse, random—effects, the player will not be able to build or verify their mental model. In such a situation, their experience becomes nonsensical and not engaging.
除了游戏的内部系统之外，玩家的心理模型还包括游戏为他们设定的明确目标以及玩家为自己创造的隐性目标。玩家在实现这些目标时对游戏进度的感受通常由游戏中的一个或多个进度系统促成。这是玩家心理模型以及参与感和成就感的重要组成部分。
In addition to the game’s internal systems, the player’s mental model includes both the explicit goals that the game sets before them, as well as the implicit goals that the player creates for themselves. The player’s sense of progress in the game as they achieve these goals is often enabled by one or more progression systems in the game. This is an important part of the player’s mental model and their sense of engagement and achievement.
互动循环
The Interactive Loop
在第 4 章中，我们还介绍了游戏与玩家之间存在的交互循环。这种互动是指玩家在游戏中的行为，然后根据游戏的反馈来了解它。这个循环涉及并包含游戏的内部模型和玩家的心理模型：每个都是交互循环系统的一个子系统（其中的一部分）。玩家的动作是游戏循环的输入，游戏模型中状态的后续变化会传达回玩家，作为玩家自身模型和状态的输入。
In Chapter 4, we also covered the interactive loop that exists between the game and the player. This give-and-take is how the player acts within the game and then learns about it based on the game’s feedback. This loop involves and subsumes both the game’s internal model and the player’s mental model: each is a subsystem of (a part within) the system of the interactive loop. The player’s actions are inputs into the game’s loop, and the subsequent change in state in the game model is communicated back to the player, acting as input to the player’s own model and state.
值得注意的是，除非存在此循环，否则游戏在任何功能意义上都不存在。游戏系统本身并不能创造游戏体验；玩家必须首先能够成功地与游戏互动。在开发游戏时，“闭合循环”以便玩家能够充分与游戏世界互动，这对设计师来说是一种非常令人满意甚至神奇的体验。当存在此循环时，玩家能够根据游戏的内部模型做出决定、采取行动并体验游戏的反馈，从而改善他们的心理模型。当这种情况发生时，您第一次意识到您正在尝试构建的游戏体验可能确实存在，作为一个由游戏和玩家创建的整体系统（请参阅本章后面的“设计师循环”部分）。
It’s important to note that until this loop exists, the game doesn’t really exist in any functional sense. The game systems by themselves don’t create the game experience; the player has to be able to successfully interact with the game first. When developing a game, “closing the loop” so that the player can fully interact with your game world is a highly satisfying, even magical experience for the designer. When this loop exists, the player is able to make a decision, take an action, and experience the feedback from the game based on its internal model, and the player thus improves their mental model. When this happens, it is the first time you have an indication that the game experience you are trying to build might actually exist as an overall system created by the game and the player (see the section “The Designer’s Loop,” later in this chapter).
虽然这种互动循环被描述为仅存在于玩家和游戏之间（例如，参见图 4.2和4.4），但它可以很容易地扩展到包括多个玩家，他们都与游戏互动，并（直接或间接地）相互互动。玩家将游戏作为魔法圈的仲裁者，他们使用它（以及他们自己的个人讨论）来传达他们在游戏中的当前状态和未来目标。
While this interactive loop has been depicted as being solely between the player and the game (refer to Figures 4.2 and 4.4, for example), it may easily be extended to include multiple players all interacting with the game and (directly or indirectly) each other. The players use the game as the arbiter of the magic circle, and they use it (as well their own personal discussions) to communicate their current state and future goals in the game.
在游戏中，玩家使用游戏令牌和规则相互互动。从任何一位玩家的角度来看，整个游戏既包含游戏的内部模型，也包含所有其他参与玩家的综合心理模型，这些模型在游戏本身中得到表达。游戏不包括每个玩家的计划和意图，但确实展示了它们是如何通过游戏结构表达出来的。每个玩家都要建立一个预测模型，不仅可以预测游戏本身会做什么，还可以预测其他玩家在追求自己的目标时会做什么。
Within the game, players interact with each other using its tokens and rules. From the point of view of any one player, the full game incorporates both the game’s internal model and the combined mental models of all other players involved, as expressed in the game itself. The game doesn’t include each player’s plans and intentions but does show how they are expressed via the game’s structures. It is up to each player to build a predictive model not only of what the game itself will do but what the other players may do as they pursue their own goals.
核心循环
如第 4 章所述，游戏的核心循环是游戏与玩家之间的互动，这些互动构成了玩家的主要关注点，即玩家关注的主要活动（参见图 4.4和4.11）。与任何交互循环一样，在核心循环中，玩家会形成一个意图并在游戏中执行该意图，从而导致游戏内部模型发生一些变化。这种变化以反馈的形式呈现给玩家，通常是能力或信息的增加。这些信息允许玩家修改他们的心理模型，包括任何学习（增加对游戏的理解或技能）。这为玩家形成下一个意图奠定了基础，重新开始循环。
As introduced in Chapter 4, a game’s core loops are the interactions between the game and the player that form the player’s primary focus—the activities that have the player’s central attention (refer to Figures 4.4 and 4.11). As in any interactive loop, in a core loop, the player forms an intention and carries it out within the game, causing some change to occur in the game’s internal model. This change is presented as feedback to the player, often with an increase in ability or information. This information allows the player to modify their mental model, including any learning (increase in understanding or skill within the game). This sets the stage for the player to form their next intent, starting the loop all over again.
游戏必须至少有一个核心循环才能与玩家建立引人入胜的互动。它可能有多个核心循环，这些循环发生在不同的时间或不同的时间尺度上，如第 4 章探讨的不同类型的交互所示（见图7.2，之前显示为图 4.6）。例如，角色扮演游戏可能将快节奏的战斗作为主要核心循环，将更具战略性和长期性的技能获取作为外循环。在战斗中，玩家使用动作/反馈和短期认知交互循环来选择如何最好地攻击。游戏会根据玩家对手的状态以及玩家必须做出反应的对手的动作提供反馈。如果玩家成功了，这个核心战斗循环的结果可能是增加游戏中的资源，如金钱、战利品或技能，以及学习如何更好地玩游戏，这为玩家提供了一种成就感和掌控感。这使玩家能够面对更大的挑战，例如与更强大的敌人进行更多战斗。随着玩家的注意力从快到慢（例如，从战斗到技能选择），游戏的核心循环也会发生变化。
A game must have at least one core loop to create engaging interactions with the player. It may have multiple core loops that take place at different times or on different time scales, as indicated by the different kinds of interactivity explored in Chapter 4 (see Figure 7.2, shown previously as Figure 4.6). For example, a role-playing game might have fast-paced combat as a primary core loop, with more strategic and long-term skill acquisition as an outer loop. In combat, the player uses action/feedback and short-term cognitive interactive loops in choosing how best to attack. The game provides feedback in terms of the player’s opponent’s state, as well as the opponent’s actions to which the player must react. If the player is successful, the result of this core combat loop may be an increase in in-game resources, such as money, loot, or skill, as well as learning about how to better play the game, which provides the player with a sense of achievement and mastery. This enables the player to face greater challenges, such as fighting more combats against even tougher foes. As the player’s attention changes from fast to slow (combat to skill selection, for example), the core loop of the game also changes.
图 7.2回顾不同类型的交互式循环（参见第 4 章），每种循环都有自己的时间尺度
Figure 7.2 A review of the different kinds of interactive loops (refer to Chapter 4), each with its own time scale
类似地，在许多策略游戏中，玩家在建造建筑物、制造单位、与这些单位战斗以及研究新建筑物和单位之间移动。这个核心循环本身是由更小、更短期的核心循环构建而成的。这些通常被称为“内部”（更短、更快）和“外部”（长期）循环。“核心”方面不一定是哪个循环最快或最内层，而是哪个循环对玩家当时的体验最重要。3
In similar fashion, in many strategy games, the player moves between constructing buildings, making units, fighting with those units, and researching new buildings and units. This core loop is itself built out of smaller, shorter-term core loops. These are often referred to as “inner” (shorter, quicker) and “outer” (longer-term) loops. The “core” aspect isn’t necessarily which loop is the fastest or innermost but which loop is most important to the player’s experience at the time.3
核心循环示例
举一个现实世界的例子，我们可以看看《部落冲突》，这是一款非常成功的动作/策略游戏。图 7.3显示了这款游戏的核心循环。游戏玩法包括收集资源、在基地/堡垒中建造（以及随后升级）建筑物以训练部队，然后派遣这些部队与其他基地（通常由其他玩家拥有）作战。这些玩家行为共同构成了游戏的核心循环。还有一些重要的外部循环，例如帮助部落中的其他人和升级。虽然这些对于游戏的整体成功和持久性很重要，但玩家行为“收集资源”、“战斗”和“建造和训练”才是这款游戏的核心。（请注意，这些名称在这里是为了方便起见，但在游戏中不会显示或提及。）
For a real-world example, we can look at Clash of Clans, a highly successful action/strategy game. Figure 7.3 shows the core loops for this game. The gameplay consists of collecting resources, constructing (and later upgrading) buildings in your base/fortress to train units, and then sending those units to battle against other bases (typically owned by other players). Together these player actions form the core loops of the game. There are important outer loops, too, such as those involving helping others in your clan and rising in levels. While those are important for the overall success and longevity of the game, the player actions “collect resources,” “battle,” and “build and train” are the core of this game. (Note that these names are used for convenience here but are not shown or referred to in the game.)
这些动作形成的两个循环都可以被视为最内层或“最核心”的循环，因为玩家会花费大量时间专注于其中一个循环。图 7.3显示“收集”和“战斗”循环是最内层的循环，因为它们的时间循环交互最短。
Either of the two loops formed by these actions can be seen as the innermost, or “most core,” as the player spends significant time focusing on one or the other. Figure 7.3 shows the “collect” and “battle” loop as the innermost, as they have the shortest time-loop interactions.
玩家点击资源来源来“收集”它们，然后将它们放入容器建筑（库存）中以供现在使用或存储（有限制）以供以后使用。在游戏的战斗部分，没有太多实际的互动性（就像许多此类移动平台游戏一样），但玩家必须决定何时何地部署部队进行攻击，使用快速动作/反馈和短期认知互动的组合。（在防守时，玩家所能做的就是旁观并希望他们的防御能够守住；玩家甚至不必在基地受到攻击时在场。）
Players click on the sources of resources to “collect” them and then put them in container buildings (stocks) for use now or storage (up to a limit) for later use. In the battling part of the game, there isn’t a lot of actual interactivity (as in many mobile-platform games of this genre), but the player does have to decide when and where to deploy troops to attack, using a combination of fast action/feedback and short-term cognitive interactivity. (When defending, all the player can do is look on and hope their defenses hold; the player doesn’t even have to be present when their base is attacked.)
图 7.3部落冲突的核心循环。玩家在游戏中的三个主要活动之间循环收集、战斗和建造。他们可以花更多时间收集和建造，也可以通过购买来加快速度。这个核心循环图可以更抽象地绘制为仅涉及战斗和建造的循环，或者更具体地绘制，显示每个活动中的循环动作。详细程度并非完全随意，而应该反映对受众（无论是开发人员、业务利益相关者还是玩家）最有用的信息
Figure 7.3 The core loops for Clash of Clans. The player cycles between collecting, battling, and building as the three main activities in the game. They can take more time in collecting and building or speed this up with purchases. This same core loop diagram could be drawn more abstractly as a loop involving only battling and building or with greater specificity, showing the looping actions within each of these activities. The level of detail is not entirely arbitrary but should reflect what is most informative for the audience—whether developers, business stakeholders, or players
战斗循环是游戏中更活跃、更紧张的部分。在这个循环中，玩家用他们的部队攻击另一个基地并带回硬币和灵药，这是游戏中的主要资源。玩家还可以提高他们的排名（外循环的一部分）。当然，玩家可能会在战斗中失去部队，然后需要重新恢复。
The battle loop is the more active, high-tension part of the game. In this loop, the player attacks another base with their troops and brings back coins and elixir, the primary in-game resources. The player may also increase their ranking (part of an outer loop). Of course, the player likely loses troops in battle that then need to be regenerated.
这将我们带到游戏中更轻松、压力更小、时间更长的部分：“建造和训练”。为了训练新部队并保卫基地，玩家必须收集金币和灵药，然后花费它们来建造建筑物。其中一些建筑物本身就是金币和灵药的来源（如上所述）——金矿和灵药收集器。作为资源来源，这些建筑物会随着时间的推移自动工作以创造这些资源。其他建筑物使用这些资源来创建（训练）进攻和防御单位。还有一些是收集资源和训练部队的容器（库存）。
This takes us to the more restful, lower-tension, and generally longer-time period part of the game: “build and train.” To train new troops and to defend their base, the player must collect and then spend gold and elixir to construct buildings. Some of these buildings are themselves sources (as described above) for gold and elixir—gold mines and elixir collectors. As resource sources, these buildings work automatically over time to create these resources. Other buildings use these resources to create (train) offensive and defensive units. Still others are containers (stock) for resources collected and troops trained.
当然，这些建筑的功能都是有限制的：资源源以一定的速率输出资源；仓库建筑只能容纳一定数量的黄金或灵药；可以训练的部队数量也有限。为了提高资源生成速度、可以存储的资源量或可以训练的部队数量，玩家必须升级建筑，在本游戏中，升级受限于基地市政厅的升级等级。
There are limits to the functions of each of these buildings, of course: a source pumps out its resource at a certain rate; a storage building holds only so much gold or elixir; and only so many troops can be trained. To increase the speed of resource generation, the amount of resource that can be stored, or the number of troops that can be trained, the player must upgrade buildings, limited in this game by the upgrade level of the base’s town hall.
此外，建造建筑物和训练部队都需要时间，这也限制了玩家的行动。这是免费游戏《部落冲突》吸引玩家付费的主要手段：玩家可以使用现实世界的货币购买宝石作为游戏内的中介货币。如图 7.3所示，这些宝石可用于加快建造或训练时间，或购买额外的金币或灵药。实际上，玩家可以用金钱换取时间，如果他们愿意付费，就可以快进游戏。这是 F2P 游戏中常见的权衡。
In addition, the player is constrained by the fact that constructing buildings takes time, and so does training troops. This is the primary lever that Clash of Clans, a free-to-play (F2P) game, uses to induce players to pay money: players may use real-world currency to purchase gems as an intermediary in-game currency. As shown in Figure 7.3, these gems can be used to speed up construction or training time or to purchase additional gold or elixir. In effect, the player can trade money for time, fast-forwarding the game if they are willing to pay for it. This is a common trade-off in F2P games.
在这个层次特异性水平上对核心循环的描述暗示了其中较低级别（或更具体）的交互循环。在主要的“建造和训练”核心循环中，玩家必须使用收集的资源来升级建筑物或部队。在“战斗”循环中，玩家必须选择训练、升级和在战斗中使用哪些单位。每个决策都充当强化循环（创建更多或更好的单位）和平衡循环（在资源使用后阻止其他决策）的一部分。这种强化和平衡循环的组合在许多游戏的核心循环中很常见，为玩家提供多个有意义的决策作为游戏玩法的关键部分。
The description of the core loops at this level of hierarchical specificity hints at lower-level (or more specific) interaction loops within these. Inside the primary “build and train” core loop, the player must use collected resources to upgrade buildings or troops. Within the “battle” loop, the player must choose which units to train, upgrade, and use in battle. Each decision acts as part of a reinforcing loop (creating more or better units) and a balancing loop (forestalling other decisions once the resources have been used). This combination of reinforcing and balancing loops is common in the core loops of many games, providing the player multiple meaningful decisions as key parts of the gameplay.
总之，这些循环使玩家能够创建一个强大的、分层的心理模型，既包括基地的结构，也包括他们自己的目标。玩家可能有嵌套的目标，比如“我需要升级我的金币储存，这样我才能有足够的钱升级我的市政厅，然后我才能升级我的兵营……”这些相互关联的结构（部分）和功能（行为）创造了一个动态的心理模型，支持行动/反馈、短期认知和长期认知类型的互动。加入和成为部落一员的外层循环（玩家可以互相帮助）为游戏增加了一层社交互动性。总之，这创造了一个极具吸引力的互动环境，有助于解释这款游戏的持久吸引力。
Altogether these loops enable the player to create a robust, hierarchical mental model of both the structures in their base and their own goals. A player might have nested goals like, “I need to upgrade my gold storage so I can get enough to upgrade my town hall so I can upgrade my barracks.…” These interlocking structures (parts) and functions (behaviors) create a dynamic mental model that supports action/feedback, short-term cognitive, and long-term cognitive types of interactions. The outer loops of joining and being part of a clan (where players can help each other out) add a layer of social interactivity to the game. Altogether, this creates a highly engaging interactivity landscape that helps explain this game’s enduring appeal.
许多其他游戏使用类似的核心循环集，通常将高张力、动作导向的战斗、解谜或类似的交互循环与较低张力的建造、制作、交易或类似的循环相结合。前者倾向于采用更快的动作/反馈和短期认知交互，而后者则倾向于较慢的长期认知、情感和社交交互。4
Many other games use similar sets of core loops, often combining a high-tension, action-oriented battle, puzzle, or similar interaction loop with a lower-tension construction, crafting, trading, or similar loop. The former tend to employ faster action/feedback and short-term cognitive interactivity, while the latter tend toward slower long-term cognitive, emotional, and social interactions.4
图 7.4 《漫威英雄战争》的核心循环。玩家在两个强化循环之间进行选择：PvE（玩家与环境，或与游戏对抗）和 PvP（玩家与玩家，或与其他人类玩家对抗）。这两个循环类似，但具有不同的内部部分（任务和对手）和不同的内部平衡元素（体力和攻击力）。这些元素限制了玩家在不休息（或花钱充电）的情况下可以进行循环的次数。通常，玩家在早期只选择 PvE，随着时间的推移逐渐转向 PvP。游戏中还有一些重要的外部循环未在此处显示
Figure 7.4 The core loops for Marvel War of Heroes. The player chooses between two reinforcing loops: PvE (player versus environment, or playing against the game) and PvP (player versus player, or playing against other human players). The loops are similar but have different internal parts (quests and opponents) and different internal balancing elements (stamina and attack power). These latter elements limit how many times the player can go through a loop without resting (or spending money to recharge). Typically players choose PvE exclusively early on, gradually moving to PvP over time. There are also significant outer loops to the game that are not shown here
再举一个例子，我们可以看看《漫威英雄战争》等游戏的核心循环，这是一款基于移动设备的卡牌战斗游戏，玩家可以创建包含玩家可以与 Marvel 宇宙的英雄们一起战斗。如图 7.4所示，玩家可以选择接受新的任务或任务，对抗“邪恶大师”等游戏内团体，也可以与其他玩家直接对战（这通常更具挑战性）。在这两种情况下，玩家都会获得奖励，以增强他们继续游戏的能力（经验、新卡、宝藏等），同时会消耗体力或攻击力，从而限制他们无限期地玩游戏的能力（至少在没有购买这些资源的更快补充的情况下）。
As another example, we can look at the core loops for a game like Marvel War of Heroes, a mobile-based card-battling game in which players create decks of virtual cards containing heroes from the Marvel universe to battle others. As shown in Figure 7.4, players can choose to take on new quests or missions against in-game groups like “The Masters of Evil,” or they can go up against other players to fight directly (which is usually more challenging). In both cases, a player receives rewards that enhance their abilities to continue playing (experience, new cards, treasures, and so on), with the braking function of using up stamina or attack power that limit their ability to play indefinitely (at least without purchasing faster refills of these resources).
与大多数此类游戏一样，这款游戏有一个重要的外循环，玩家可以组合和强化他们的英雄。这些互动通常使用动作/反馈和长期认知互动的有趣组合：玩家通过增强或组合两个英雄（变成一个更强大的英雄）获得奖励，包括令人满意的动画、特效和声音，这些都作为他们行动的有效即时反馈。他们还必须做出长期战略权衡，决定要增强哪些英雄、在战斗中使用哪些英雄等等，从而为他们的游戏提供更长的时间范围；这款游戏既是关于当下的战斗，也是关于如何长期最有效地战斗的计划。
There is an important outer loop to this game, as with most games of this type, where players combine and enhance their heroes. These interactions typically use an interesting combination of action/feedback and long-term cognitive interaction: the player is rewarded for enhancing or combining two heroes (into a single, more powerful hero) with satisfying animations, special effects, and sounds, which act as effective instant feedback for their actions. They also have to make long-term strategic trade-offs about which heroes to enhance, which ones to use in battle, and so on that provide a longer time horizon to their gameplay; the game is about both battling in the moment and planning for how to battle the most effectively over the long term.
这个外循环在其自身的强化循环中驱动着玩家继续战斗的欲望：增强的英雄意味着更好的战斗表现，更好的战斗表现带来更多奖励，其中一些奖励可用于进一步增强他们的英雄。虽然这个外循环不是玩家时时刻刻体验的核心，但它对于玩家继续参与游戏至关重要，也是游戏获得商业成功的主要机会。
This outer loop drives the player’s desire to continue battling in its own reinforcing loop: enhanced heroes mean better battle performance, and better battle performance leads to more rewards, some of which can be used to enhance their heroes further. While this outer loop is not core to the player’s moment-by-moment experience, it is vital to the player’s continued engagement with the game, as well as being the game’s primary opportunity for commercial success.
核心循环摘要
游戏的核心循环是其主要的交互系统。如果核心循环支持不同时间长度的交互（如本文和第 4 章所述），它们有助于创建一款立即吸引人并能长时间保持吸引力的游戏。通过核心循环，玩家可以创建游戏的心理模型，包括他们当前的操作和长期目标，以及随着时间的推移提高他们对游戏的理解和技能。简单的游戏可能只有一个交互核心循环，但这些游戏总体上往往是较短的体验。例如，在游戏Boomshine中，玩家的核心循环是每个关卡点击一次（并且仅一次），然后见证他们操作的结果。这个游戏最多持续几分钟，但随着每次迭代，玩家的心理模型会进一步磨练，通常会提高他们的游戏技能。因此，玩家会一次又一次地回到游戏中测试和提高他们的游戏技能，实际上创建了他们自己的重玩游戏的外部循环。
A game’s core loops are its primary interactive systems. If the core loops support different time lengths of interactivity (as described here and in Chapter 4), they help create a game that is immediately engaging and remains so for long periods of time. It is via the core loops that the player creates a mental model of the game, including both their current actions and long-term goals with it, as well as improving their understanding and skill with the game over time. Simple games may have a single interactive core loop, but these tend to be shorter experiences overall. In the game Boomshine, for example, the player’s core loop is to click one time (and one time only) per level and then witness the results of their action. This game lasts for a few minutes at most, though with each iteration, the player hones their mental model a little bit more, often increasing their skill with the game. As a result, players return to the game over and over again to test and improve their skill with it, in effect creating their own outer loop of replaying the game.
游戏机制
对交互式游戏循环的理解为游戏机制的定义提供了基础。这个短语在游戏设计中被广泛使用，模糊地指代重复出现的模式和游戏玩法：平台跳跃是一种常见的游戏机制，资源也是如此管理、碰碰运气和掷骰子。这些游戏机制的范围从简单（抽一张牌）到复杂（建立一个帝国）。因此，很难确定游戏机制的基本特征；它们往往最终成为“模糊的游戏玩法”，而没有进一步的定义。
The understanding of interactive game loops provides the basis for a definition of game mechanics. This phrase is used a lot in game design to refer vaguely to recurring patterns and chunks of gameplay: platform-jumping is a common game mechanic, as are resource management, push your luck, and dice rolling. These game mechanics span the range from simple (draw a card) to long and complex (build an empire). It can therefore be difficult to nail down the essential characteristics of game mechanics; often they end up being “fuzzy chunks of gameplay” without further definition.
这些机制的共同点在于它们的系统性：每个游戏机制都会在玩家和游戏之间形成一个互动循环。这个循环是可识别的，并且作为其自己的系统，通常不受任何特定游戏环境的影响；例如，许多游戏使用抽牌或领土控制作为机制。游戏机制可能快速而简单，其中没有子系统，也可能包含许多子系统，需要很长时间才能完成。
What these all have in common is their systemic nature: each game mechanic forms an interactive loop between the player(s) and the game. This loop is identifiable and, as its own system, is generally free of any particular game context; lots of games use draw a card or territory control as mechanics, for example. A game mechanic may be fast and simple with no subsystems within it, or it may contain many subsystems and take a long time to complete.
玩家在游戏过程中反复遇到的游戏机制有时被称为核心玩法或核心机制，它既包含特定机制中有意义的游戏内容，也包含核心循环的理念。当这些机制以略有不同的形式出现在许多游戏中时，就形成了游戏类型。例如，在平台游戏类型中，跳跃是一种核心机制，通常还伴有双跳、在移动平台之间跳跃、墙壁跳跃等变体。在角色扮演游戏中，战斗是一种典型的核心机制，收集战利品和获得力量也是如此。在每个类型中，游戏都有可识别的机制，可告知玩家他们将在游戏中进行哪些类型的互动。每款游戏都不同于同类型的其他游戏，但它们的机制所创造的系统交互循环的相似性创造了一种熟悉感，有助于玩家更轻松地创建他们对游戏的心理模型。
Game mechanics that the player encounters repeatedly throughout a game are sometimes referred to as the core gameplay or core mechanic, incorporating both the meaningful chunk of the game found in a particular mechanic and the idea of the core loop. When these mechanics are seen in many games in slightly different forms, this leads to the formation of game genres. For example, in the platformer genre, jumping is a core mechanic, often along with variations like double-jumps, jumping between moving platforms, wall jumping, and so on. In role-playing games, combat is a typical core mechanic, as are collecting loot and gaining power. Within each genre, games share identifiable mechanics that inform the player about the kinds of interactions they will have in the game. Each game differs from others of its genre, but the similarities in the systemic interactive loops created by their mechanics create a sense of familiarity that helps a player more easily create their mental model of the game.
本章并不列出常见的游戏机制，而是采用更系统的方法介绍三种主要的游戏循环（引擎、经济和生态）以及如何将它们组合成各种机制。
Rather than create a list of common game mechanics, this chapter takes a more systemic approach in going over three primary kinds of gameplay loops (engines, economies, and ecologies) and how to combine them together into various mechanics.
设计师的循环
The Designer’s Loop
正如本书所提到的，从很多方面来说，最外层的循环是设计师循环（见图7.5，前面已在图 I.3和4.3中展示）。设计师必须从外部将游戏+玩家系统视为一个统一的整体，游戏和玩家都是必要的子系统。设计师通过观察玩家的游戏体验并调整游戏模型来与这个总体系统进行交互，以便为玩家提供更好的参与度。你可以将游戏设计过程视为一个平衡循环，玩家会体验设计师创建的设计，并向设计师提供反馈。该反馈显示了设计师的意图和玩家的体验之间的差异。然后，设计师会更改设计以（希望）减少这种差异，然后循环再次开始。
As mentioned throughout this book, what is in many ways the outermost loop of all is the designer’s loop (see Figure 7.5, shown earlier as Figures I.3 and 4.3). The designer must view the game+player system as a unified whole from the outside, where both the game and the player are necessary subsystems. The designer interacts with this overarching system by watching players experience the game and adjusting the game’s model to provide better engagement for the player. You can think of the game design process as a balancing loop, where the design as created by the designer is experienced by the player, who provides feedback to the designer. This feedback demonstrates the difference between the designer’s intent and the player’s experience. The designer then changes the design to (hopefully) reduce this difference, and the loop begins again.
图 7.5设计师的循环。作为游戏设计师，你必须通过制作游戏+玩家系统来构建玩家的体验
Figure 7.5 The designer’s loop. As the game designer, you must construct the player’s experience by making the game+player system
创建、测试和调整游戏的内部模型和系统是游戏设计的本质。除非你能够看到并与玩家互动，否则从很多方面来说，游戏还不算是存在。一堆规则并不能构成游戏。即使是模拟（独立运行的游戏模型）也还不算是游戏。要让游戏变得“真实”，需要有互动的游戏+玩家系统。设计师的循环也存在于此时，你可以在游戏设计上取得一些最佳进展。我们将在第12 章“让你的游戏变得真实”中讨论原型设计和游戏测试的细节，从而更多地了解这个循环。
Creating, testing, and tweaking the game’s internal model and systems is the essence of game design. Until you are able to see and interact with players interacting with your game, the game in many ways does not yet exist. A bunch of rules does not make a game. Even a simulation (a game model that runs on its own) is not yet a game. Having the game be “real” requires having the interactive game+player system in place. It is at this point that the designer’s loop can also exist, and where you can make some of the best progress on your game design. We will see more of this loop in Chapter 12, “Making Your Game Real,” in discussing the details of prototyping and playtesting.
级别和层次
Levels and Hierarchy
正如在对游戏中不同主要循环的简要回顾中所示，系统必然涉及层次化的组织。交互循环包括游戏和玩家循环；交互循环是设计师循环的一部分（连同设计师自己的计划和目标）。
As shown in this brief recounting of the different principal loops in a game, systems necessarily involve hierarchical levels of organization. The interactive loop has as its parts the game and player loops; and the interactive loop is one part in the designer’s loop (along with the designer’s own plans and goals).
当我们讨论游戏循环和系统时，要记住这一重要原则：系统通常包含其他系统，每个系统都是循环的一部分，形成更高级别的系统。能够构建系统的系统（循环中的循环），同时能够跟踪您当前在分层系统中工作的级别并同时查看整个体验，这是游戏设计师技能组合的一个关键方面（参见图 5.2）。这就是为什么能够以系统的角度思考对任何游戏设计师来说都如此重要。
This principle is an important one to remember as we discuss game loops and systems: Systems typically contain other systems, with each being a part in a loop forming a higher-level system. Being able to construct systems of systems—loops within loops—while being able to keep track of what level you are currently working on in a hierarchical system and see the whole experience at the same time is a critical aspect of the game designer’s skill set (refer to Figure 5.2). This is why being able to think in terms of systems is so vital for any game designer.
举个例子，考虑一下第 2 章中首次介绍的狼和鹿的生态学。如图 7.6所示，鹿组成了自己的具有主要强化回路的小系统。排除外部事件，只要现有的鹿有足够的食物，鹿的数量就会增加。然而，鹿越多，可用的食物就越少。如果食物消耗超过从来源输入的食物，出生的鹿就会减少。为清楚起见，成年鹿饥饿（食物耗尽）的影响在这里没有明确显示；相反，鹿有时有另一种行为（死亡），这会将它们带出系统。该系统的边界如图 7.6中的虚线圆圈所示。食物作为简单的来源从外部进入鹿系统，而死亡是一个汇聚点，将鹿带出系统。
As an example, consider the ecology of wolves and deer first introduced in Chapter 2. As shown in Figure 7.6, the deer make up their own small system with a primarily reinforcing loop. Excluding external events, the deer population will increase as long as existing deer have sufficient food. However, the more deer there are, the less food is available. If the consumption of food outstrips the food coming in from the source, fewer deer will be born. For clarity, the effect of adults’ starvation (running out of food) isn’t explicitly shown here; instead, deer have another behavior (dying) that they sometimes do that takes them out of their system. The boundaries of this system are shown as the dashed circle in Figure 7.6. Food comes into the deer system from outside as a simple source, and death is a sink, taking deer out of the system.
Figure 7.6 The mainly reinforcing loop (with a balancing component) of a deer population as a system diagram
可以针对狼和植物绘制一个类似的详细图表，尽管狼（在某种意义上也是植物）的食物来源是鹿，如图7.7所示。此图比前一个图高一个组织级别（更抽象一个级别）。图 7.7中标有“鹿”的圆圈（股票）包含图 7.6中灰色圆圈内的整个系统。该系统现在显示为更大系统的一部分。
A similarly detailed diagram could be drawn for wolves and plants, though the wolves’ (and, in a sense, the plants’) food source is deer, as shown in Figure 7.7. This figure is one organizational level up (one level more abstract) from the previous one. The circle (stock) labeled “Deer” in Figure 7.7 contains the entire system within the gray circle in Figure 7.6. That system is now shown as a part in the larger system.
在图 7.7中，我们看到鹿的数量越多，狼的数量就会越多——代价是鹿的数量减少（双箭头）。这是一个小小的平衡循环，从较小的以鹿为中心的系统的角度来看，这是一个外部效应（除了鹿有“死亡”行为，狼可能会强迫）。鹿与植物（它们的食物）有着类似的平衡关系，植物现在是系统的一部分，而不是外部的简单来源。鹿和狼死后都会成为植物生长的土壤。
In Figure 7.7 we see that the more deer there are, the larger the wolf population will become—at the expense of reducing the deer’s numbers (the double arrows). This is its own little balancing loop, and an external effect from the point of view of the smaller deer-centric system (except for the deer having a “die” behavior, which the wolves may force). Deer have a similar balancing relationship with plants, their food, which are now part of the system rather than being an external simple source. And both deer and wolves, when they die, make for soil on which plants grow.
请注意，植物、鹿和狼的不同增长率平衡了这个系统。除了提到的平衡回路之外，这里还有一个鹿、土壤和植物之间的强化回路，这可能表明鹿和植物的数量都失控了，只不过它被鹿吃掉植物（所以它们不能制造新的植物）和狼吃掉鹿所平衡。还要注意，这个小生态系统也被虚线圆圈所包围，表明它也可能是更高层次系统的一部分。
Note that the different rates of increase of plants, deer, and wolves balance this system. In addition to the mentioned balancing loops, here is a reinforcing loop between deer, soil, and plants that could indicate a runaway number of both deer and plants, except that it is balanced by the deer eating the plants (so they can’t make new plants) and by the wolves eating the deer. Note too that this little ecology is also bounded by a dashed circle, indicating that it too may be a part in a still higher-level system.
图 7.7更高层次的鹿/狼生态。图 7.6中的系统是这里的子系统，外部源和接收器被库存取代——这些部分可能是它们自己的系统
Figure 7.7 The higher-level deer/wolf ecology. The system from Figure 7.6 is a subsystem here, with the external source and sink replaced with stocks—parts that may be their own systems
三种游戏循环
Three Kinds of Gameplay Loops
如上一节中的鹿/狼系统所示，游戏系统是复杂的循环结构。（游戏系统还包括玩家互动，而鹿/狼系统没有。）这些循环结构是游戏运行的基础：它们构成了游戏内部世界模型的结构基础，并且在运行时，它们创建了游戏的功能方面 - 玩家与之互动以创建游戏玩法的复杂动态模型。
As shown in the deer/wolf system in the preceding section, game systems are complex looping structures. (A game system would also include player interaction, which the deer/wolf system does not have.) These looping structures are what make the game go: they form the structural basis for the game’s internal model of the world and, when running, they create the functional aspects of the game—the complex dynamic model with which the player interacts to create gameplay.
正如第 3 章所讨论的，你可以将每个功能系统元素视为“执行 X 的机器”——例如，“我想要一台制造鹿的机器”或“我想要一个鹿和狼之间的生态系统”。每个游戏系统都通过其各个部分（通常是独立的系统，如上所示）作为系统（复杂、通常是分层的）循环结构的一部分进行交互来“做某事”。
As discussed in Chapter 3, you can think of each of these functional systemic elements as “a machine that does X”—as in, “I want a machine that makes deer” or “I want an ecology between deer and wolves.” Each game system “does something” by having its parts (often systems in their own right, as shown above) interact as part of systemic (complex, often hierarchical) looping structures.
这些系统是强化循环和平衡循环的混合体，具体取决于系统的整体目的。在大多数游戏中，强化循环总体上占主导地位。这可以促进玩家的成长和进步，玩家在游戏中的角色或代表在游戏过程中会变得更加强大。
These systems are a mix of reinforcing and balancing loops, depending on the overall purpose of the system. In most games, there is an overall predominance of reinforcing loops. This enables player gain and progression, where the player’s in-game avatar or representation becomes more powerful over the course of the game.
每个系统都以前面所述的方式处理资源：各部分的行为通常涉及各部分之间资源的增加、减少、流动和/或转换或交换；这就是系统循环的形成原因。循环可以在内部使用相同的资源，也可以作为循环的一部分将一种资源转换为另一种资源。在强化系统中，这些资源会随着时间的推移而增加，而在平衡系统中，它们会减少到预定水平或动态平衡。因此，强化循环有时被认为是“获得”，而平衡循环被认为是“维持”特定资源或资源集。
Each system works with resources as described earlier: the parts’ behaviors typically involve the increase, decrease, flow, and/or conversion or exchange of resources between parts; this is what creates the systemic loop. The loop may work with the same resource internally or may convert or exchange one for another resource as part of the loop. In a reinforcing system, these resources increase over time, and in a balancing system, they decrease to a predetermined level or to a dynamic balance. For this reason, reinforcing loops are sometimes thought of as “gaining,” while balancing loops are thought of as “maintaining” a particular resource or set of resources.
这两组条件（强化或平衡以及相同或交换资源）为我们提供了三种广泛的游戏循环供我们研究。每一种循环对游戏设计都具有不同的重要性，以下章节将更详细地讨论所有这些循环：
These two sets of conditions—reinforcing or balancing and same or exchanged resources—give us three broad kinds of gameplay loops to examine. Each of these are important to game design in different ways, and all of them are discussed in greater detail in the following sections:
引擎：用相同资源进行强化或平衡
Engines: Reinforcing or balancing with the same resource
经济：通过交换资源来加强
Economies: Reinforcing by exchanging resources
生态：通过交换资源实现平衡
Ecologies: Balancing by exchanging resources
引擎
Engines
我们要考虑的第一种系统“机器”被广泛称为引擎。当然，这个词有多种含义，即使在游戏中也是如此——例如，开发引擎通过处理许多繁琐的底层任务，使游戏构建过程变得更容易。
The first type of systemic “machine” for us to consider is broadly called engines. This word has a number of meanings, of course, even within games—for example, a development engine makes the process of constructing a game easier by taking care of a number of tedious underlying tasks.
从游戏设计的角度来说，引擎既可以起到促进作用（强化），也可以起到制约作用（平衡）。第一种引擎会为游戏增加资源，第二种引擎则会消耗资源。
In game design terms, an engine may be either boosting (reinforcing) or braking (balancing). The first type adds resources to the game, and the second type drains them out.
增压引擎
助推引擎是一种将资源添加到游戏中的系统，让玩家可以选择是使用资源在当下游戏中行动，还是投资资源以在未来获得更多的资源流。（Adams 和 Dormans [2012] 将此称为动态引擎，而不是充当静态引擎的简单资源源。）助推引擎有一个主要的强化循环，它始于一个资源源，该资源源会从中产生流出的资源：这可能是铁、行动点、军队单位、魔法力量或其他数量的物体（见图7.8）。玩家必须决定是使用这些资源在当下游戏中行动，还是投资于未来的更强大的能力（更大的资源流）。
A boosting engine is a system that adds resources to the game in a way that enables the player to choose between using them to act within the game in the moment or to invest them to gain a greater flow of resources in the future. (This is what Adams and Dormans [2012] call a dynamic engine, as opposed to a simple source acting as a static engine.) Boosting engines have a primary reinforcing loop that begins with a source creating a resource that flows out from it: this might be iron, action points, army units, magical power, or some other quantity of objects (see Figure 7.8). The player must decide whether to use these resources to act in the game right now or to invest in greater capabilities (greater resource flow) for the future.
图 7.8增压引擎系统的主要强化回路。请注意，图 7.1中的示例图像形成的图表在功能上等同于此处显示的回路，尽管在此图中，玩家的选择被明确称为决策点
Figure 7.8 The primary reinforcing loop of a boosting engine system. Note that the diagram formed by the example iconography in Figure 7.1 is functionally equivalent to the loop shown here, though in this diagram, the player’s choice is called out explicitly as the decision point
被称为引擎构建游戏的游戏使用此系统（或其更复杂的变体）作为玩家获得力量和能力的主要方式：在构建引擎时，玩家可以提高他们在游戏中的能力，或者他们可以选择使用资源在游戏中采取行动。在游戏中采取行动通常会带来自己的短期回报，代价是花费资源，但构建引擎会为未来投资（并完成强化循环）。平衡何时投资与何时行动的选择是这些游戏中的主要决定。因此，当引擎构建游戏用作游戏的核心循环时，它倾向于长期认知（战略）互动。如果玩家不采取战略性玩法，他们就会输——但如果他们玩得太有战略性（投资多于行动），他们也会输。
Games known as engine-building games use this system (or a more complex variation of it) as the primary way for the player to gain power and ability: as they build their engine, the player increases their capabilities within the game, or they can choose to use the resources to act within the game. Acting within the game typically brings its own short-term rewards, at the cost of spent resources, but building the engine invests for the future (and completes the reinforcing loop). Balancing the choice of when to invest versus when to act is a primary decision in these games. As a result, engine-building games tend toward long-term cognitive (strategic) interactivity when this is used as the game’s core loop. If a player does not play strategically, they will lose—though if they play too strategically (investing more than acting), they can lose as well.
示例
许多桌游都使用助推引擎作为游戏玩法的主要驱动力。早期的例子来自游戏大富翁。玩家一开始有 1,500 美元，每次绕着棋盘走一圈都会从银行（“来源”）获得 200 美元。他们可以用这笔钱投资房产，当有人落在上面时，这些房产就会产生更多的钱。还有一个次要的引擎构建循环，拥有特定颜色所有房产的玩家可以投资房屋和酒店，提高房产的赚钱能力。玩家不想在这个游戏中投资房产的唯一原因是，他们可以等到购买更喜欢的房产，并且可以通过有足够的钱支付其他玩家房产的租金或其他游戏内费用来防止破产。
Many tabletop games use boosting engines as a primary driver of gameplay. An early example comes from the game Monopoly. Players begin with $1,500 and gain $200 from the bank (the “source”) each time they go around the board. They can use that money to invest in properties that generate more money when people land on them. There is also a secondary engine-building loop in which players with all the properties of a given color can invest in houses and hotels, driving up the money-generating aspect of the property. The only reasons a player wouldn’t want to invest money in a property in this game are so they can wait to buy a more preferred property and so they can defend against bankruptcy by having enough money to pay rent on other players’ properties or pay other in-game costs.
近期的例子包括《Dominion》、《Power Grid》和《Splendor》。有些游戏，比如《Splendor》，将资源流的增益与行动结合起来：作为玩家，你使用宝石购买一张卡，而这张卡反过来会增加你每回合必须使用的“免费”宝石的数量（增加来自源头的资源流）。此外，这款游戏还设置了一个单独的资源以胜利点的形式出现。在这种情况下，玩家的决定会略有变化：他们将通过任何行动获得能力（以宝石的形式提供的额外资源），但他们必须决定是花费资源来增加未来的能力，还是花费更多资源来获得更多胜利点。这产生了与上述相同的平衡行为，玩家可以在即时能力增益和未来以胜利点的形式获得的潜在增益之间进行选择。
More recent examples include games like Dominion, Power Grid, and Splendor. Some, like Splendor, combine the gain in resource flow with action: as a player, you use gems to purchase a card, and the card in turn adds to the number of “free” gems you have to use on each turn (increasing the resource flow from the source). In addition, this game also sets up a separate resource in the form of victory points. In such cases, the player’s decision shifts slightly: they are going to gain capability (additional resource in the form of gems to use) with any action, but they must decide whether to spend their resources to increase only their future capabilities or spend more of them to also gain more victory points. This creates the same sort of balancing act described above, with the player choosing between immediate capability gain and potential gain in the future in the form of victory points.
许多基于计算机的战略游戏也使用引擎构建系统：您可以选择花费资源来构建战斗单位，也可以将这些资源投入到建造设施中，以构建更强大的战斗单位。作为建立在主要引擎系统之上的外部强化循环，在许多此类游戏中，您还可以派遣这些战斗单位出去带回所需的资源，尽管在此过程中可能会失去其中一些单位。
Many computer-based strategy games also use engine-building systems: you can choose to spend resources to build fighting units, or you can invest those resources into constructing facilities that will build even better fighting units. As a form of outer reinforcing loop built on top of the primary engine system, in many such games, you can also send these fighting units out to bring back needed resources, albeit at the risk of losing some of those units in the process.
发动机问题
引擎构建可以成为游戏中一个很棒的核心循环，但助推引擎也容易出现某些问题。首先，由于它们基于强化循环，因此在富人越来越富的场景中，它们可能会失控，除非有平衡循环来防止这种情况发生。一个古老的例子是 1990 年的街机游戏Rampart。在这个游戏中，玩家建造城堡，然后互相发射大炮。每一轮之后，玩家都会根据上一轮的表现重建城堡，增加更多的墙壁和枪支。这创造了一个强大的强化引擎构建循环，问题是一旦一个玩家开始获胜，另一个玩家就很难或不可能赶上。游戏中没有追赶机制，主要的平衡循环是，要继续玩，你必须不断向街机投入更多硬币。（当游戏进入不需要硬币的家用电视游戏机时，这个缺陷变得更加明显。）
Engine building can be a great core loop within a game, but boosting engines also are prone to certain issues. First, because they are based on reinforcing loops, they have the potential to run out of control in a rich-get-richer scenario unless there are balancing loops in place to prevent this. An old example of this is the 1990 arcade game Rampart. In this game, players built castles and then fired cannons at each other. After each round, the players would rebuild their castles, adding more walls and guns, based on their performance in the previous round. This created a strong reinforcing engine-building loop, with the problem being that once one player started winning, it was difficult or impossible for the other player to catch up. There were no in-game mechanisms for catching up, and the primary balancing loop was the fact that to keep playing, you had to keep putting more coins into the arcade machine. (When the game came to home TV-based game consoles that required no coins, this flaw became more obvious.)
另一方面，如果玩家没有足够的资源继续游戏，基于助推引擎的游戏可能会停滞。想象一下，如果在《大富翁》游戏中，您一开始只有 500 美元而不是 1,500 美元。玩家将只能购买少量房产，并面临因破产而很快被淘汰的风险。或者，在幻想游戏中，如果购买魔法武器的唯一金币来源是一个只能用魔法武器杀死的怪物，玩家将无法在游戏中前进。后一种情况有时称为死锁，即循环在开始之前就已完成的情况，因为启动循环也需要通过运行循环获得的资源。
On the other end, games based on boosting engines can stall if the player has insufficient resources to continue playing. Imagine if in Monopoly you started with only $500 instead of $1,500. Players would be able to purchase only a few properties and would run the risk of quickly being eliminated from the game due to bankruptcy. Or, in a fantasy game, if the only source of gold with which to buy magic weapons were a monster who can only be killed with a magic weapon, the player would be unable to progress in the game. This latter condition is sometimes known as a deadlock, a situation where a loop is done before it starts because the resource gained by running through the loop is also required to start it.
总体而言，助推引擎需要仔细平衡强化和平衡循环：生产多少资源，流量可以增加多少，以及其他平衡因素，例如玩家在行动上花费多少而不是在游戏中投资。例如，如果在战略游戏中建造单位很便宜，而且单位永远不会死亡，那么玩家可以快速建立足够的单位，这样他们就不必担心创造更多单位。然后他们可以将所有资源投入到投资和创造更好的单位上，这可能会导致失控的情况，例如一个玩家占主导地位，或者至少，所有玩家都会迅速增加他们购买的单位数量和类型，并投入越来越多的资金。如果玩家平衡彼此的进度，后一种情况可以带来令人兴奋的升级游戏体验；例如，这是许多移动平台上的策略游戏的主要内容。然而，当玩家耗尽所有现有单位并且无法进一步前进时，它可能会导致玩家最终渴望新内容。通过指数增加成本的平衡循环来纠正这种情况会延迟但最终不会防止内容枯竭问题。（使用指数曲线进行进度平衡将在第 10 章“游戏平衡实践”中详细讨论。）
Overall, boosting engines require careful balancing of reinforcing and balancing loops: how much of a resource is produced, and how much the flow can be increased, along with other counterbalancing factors, such as how much the player has to spend on actions rather than investing in the game. For example, if in a strategy game constructing units is cheap and the units never die, then the player can quickly build up enough units that they don’t need to worry about creating more. Then they can devote all their resources to investment and creating better units, which can lead to a runaway situation, such as one player dominating or, at minimum, all players quickly escalating the number and types of units they purchase with greater and greater investment. The latter situation can make for exciting escalating gameplay if players are balancing each other’s progress; this is a staple of many strategy games on mobile platforms, for example. However, it can lead to players eventually becoming starved for new content when they have burned through all the existing units and can progress no further. Correcting for this with the balancing loop of exponentially increasing costs delays but ultimately does not prevent the content-exhaustion problem. (Progression balancing using exponential curves is discussed in detail in Chapter 10, “Game Balance Practice.”)
加速引擎的最后一个问题可能来自于平衡游戏本身的行为。玩家会努力寻找一种有效的策略，以尽快制造出最强大的引擎，从而赢得游戏。当然，这与他们在游戏中采取行动的需要相抵触，这至少部分平衡了（并延迟了）他们在游戏中投入和获得额外能力的能力。然而，如果过于谨慎地平衡这组循环，游戏设计师可能会无意中破坏整个游戏空间的潜在路径，只留下一种有意义的策略。在博弈论中，这被称为主导策略：一种始终是可取的策略，并且为选择它的玩家产生获胜条件的概率最高。
A final problem with boosting engines can come from the act of balancing the game itself. Players will work to find an effective strategy to make the most powerful engine they can as quickly as possible so that they can win the game. Of course, this is set against their need to act in the game, which at least partially balances (and delays) their ability to invest and gain additional power in the game. If this set of loops is balanced too carefully, however, there is a risk that the game designer will unintentionally collapse the potential paths through the game-space, leaving only one strategy that makes sense. In game theory, this is known as a dominant strategy: one that is always preferable and has the highest probability of producing a win condition for the player who chooses it.
例如，如果在幻想游戏中有一种武器和盔甲组合可以战胜所有其他组合，或者在战略游戏中有一种可以购买的单位可以战胜所有其他单位，那么玩家就会急于利用这些组合并迅速获得力量。然而，在创造这种情况时，设计师几乎没有给玩家留下任何决定：如果玩家知道存在首选的主导策略解决方案，他们就会急于采用它，或者他们会四处寻找直到找到它，然后因为其他人比他们更早知道秘密的最佳路径而感到沮丧。无论是哪种情况，缺乏有意义的决定都会让玩家的参与度和游戏乐趣迅速消失。
If, for example, in a fantasy game there is one combination of weapons and armor that beat all others, or if in a strategy game there is one kind of unit that can be purchased and beats all others, then the players will rush to exploit those and gain power quickly. However, in creating such a situation, the designer has left the players with few if any decisions to make: players will either rush to the preferred dominant strategy solution if they know it exists, or they will cast about until they find it, and then be frustrated that others knew of the secret optimal path before they did. In either case, the lack of meaningful decisions causes the player’s engagement and sense of fun in the game to evaporate quickly.
制动发动机
与增压引擎相比，制动引擎具有主要的平衡回路。因此，制动引擎在许多方面都是增压引擎的逆：回路中的源产生资源，但回路的动作会减少该资源的数量，在某些情况下，还会减少未来获得该资源的数量（或频率）。这种结构的一个现实世界示例是汽车上的刹车：踩下刹车时，车轮的速度会降低到某个水平或完全停止。另一个物理示例是我们在图 1.7中看到的机械调速器，其中旋转重物的运动会调节其所连接引擎的速度。这些回路有时也称为摩擦结构（Adams 和 Dormans 2012），因为它们会减慢游戏过程中的动作或资源获得速度。
In contrast to boosting engines, braking engines have a predominant balancing loop. A braking engine is therefore in many ways the inverse of a boosting engine: a source in the loop generates a resource, but the action of the loop serves to decrease the amount of that resource and in some cases reduce the amount (or frequency) of gain of that resource in the future. A real-world example of this structure is the brakes on a car: when applied, they reduce the speed of the wheels either down to some level or to a complete stop. Another physical example is the mechanical governor we saw in Figure 1.7, where the motion of the spinning weights regulates the speed of the engine to which it is attached. These loops are also sometimes known as friction structures (Adams and Dormans 2012), as they slow the action or resource gain in gameplay.
对于游戏设计的一部分来说，这似乎是一个奇怪的结构，与其他循环结构不同，这些循环结构往往被视为其他循环的一部分，而不是独立的。然而，回顾前面的例子（参见图 7.3和7.4），我们可以看到如何将一个调节或阻碍玩家进步的因素可能是游戏的重要组成部分。在像《漫威英雄战争》这样的卡牌战斗游戏中，如果没有某些调节和削弱玩家能力的因素，玩家可以不受限制地继续游戏。在该游戏中，耐力和攻击力都起到这个作用。在其他游戏中，类似的调节或阻碍条件包括各种形式的摩擦，或者玩家必须注意的条件，这些条件会从他们的整体进步中转移资源。《大富翁》中的“进行修理”机会卡就是一个例子，玩家需要支付与他们拥有的房屋和酒店数量成比例的金额：一个随机事件通过耗尽玩家的资源来调节他们。这张卡还表现出前面提到的“橡皮筋”效应，因为它对落后玩家的影响远不及对获胜并拥有许多房产的玩家的影响。
This may seem like an odd structure for part of a game design, and unlike the other loop structures, these tend to be seen as parts within other loops rather than on their own. Referring back to earlier examples, however (refer to Figures 7.3 and 7.4), we can see how putting a regulator or a brake on a player’s progress can be an important part of a game. In a card battling game like Marvel War of Heroes, players could continue to play without restriction if there were not some regulation and reduction of their abilities. In that game, both stamina and attack power serve this purpose. In other games, similar regulating or braking conditions include a variety of forms of friction, or conditions to which the players must attend and that divert resources from their overall progression. The “make repairs” Chance card in Monopoly, where players have to pay an amount proportional to the number of houses and hotels they own, is an example of this: a random event that drain’s the player’s resources as a way of regulating them. This card also exhibits the “rubberbanding” effect mentioned earlier, as it does not affect a lagging player nearly as much as it affects one who is winning and owns many properties.
减速至停止
毫不奇怪，在游戏环境中必须谨慎使用制动引擎。如果对玩家资源的管制过于严格，以至于克服了助推引擎或经济系统中的主要强化循环，玩家很快就会没有足够的资源在游戏中采取行动。就像停滞不前的经济一样，游戏将陷入停顿。例如，如果大富翁游戏中要求玩家支付所有财产维修费用的机会卡在游戏中出现的频率更高，或者其成本更高，就会过度限制玩家的行动，使他们无法以其他方式在游戏中采取行动。就像一辆带有拖曳式刹车的汽车会产生过多的摩擦力一样，这会导致游戏系统中消耗过多的能量，游戏将慢慢停止。
Not surprisingly, braking engines must be used carefully within the context of a game. If the regulation of the player’s resources is too severe, such that it overcomes the main reinforcing loop in a boosting engine or an economic system, the player will soon have insufficient resources to act in the game. As with a stagnating economy, the game will grind to a halt. For example, if the Chance card in Monopoly that requires the player to pay for repairs on all their properties appeared in the game more often, or if its costs were higher, it would have the effect of overly constraining the player’s actions, leaving them unable to act in the game in other ways. Like a car with dragging brakes providing too much friction, this has the overall result of removing too much energy from the game’s systems, and the game will slow to a stop.
经济
Economies
第二种系统机器是经济。与引擎系统一样，这是一个常用词，但含义不同。在游戏设计中，经济是指任何由强化循环（或循环集）主导的系统，其中资源或价值的增加不是来自资源的内部投资（如增强引擎），而是来自将一种资源交换为另一种资源或将一种资源转换为另一种资源，从而实现非线性的价值增长。正如游戏设计师 Brian Giaime (2015) 所说：“游戏经济是多个系统和实体之间资源、时间和权力的动态交换。”之所以进行交换，“是因为玩家认为交换会带来价值增长。”
The second type of systemic machine is the economy. Like the engine system, this is a commonly used word with different meanings. In the sense used here for game design, an economy is any system dominated by a reinforcing loop (or set of loops) where the increase in resources or value comes not from internal investment of a resource (as with boosting engines) but from exchanging one resource for another or converting one resource to another with a nonlinear gain in value. As game designer Brian Giaime (2015) said, “A game economy is the dynamic exchange of resources, time, and power between multiple systems and entities.” These are exchanged “because players perceive a gain in value for the exchange.”
让我们来分析一下。在如上所述的增效引擎中，玩家可以选择使用资源还是投资资源以增加未来该资源的流量。在经济中，玩家可以使用资源执行游戏中所需的操作 - 例如，使用木材作为资源来建造建筑物。或者玩家可以用木材换取面包来养活他们的工人 - 然后工人可以去砍伐更多的木材。在这种情况下，玩家通过将一种资源换成另一种资源来获得能力，使他们能够获得更多他们最初拥有的资源，通常是在延迟之后，以防止玩家创建失控的强化循环。
Let’s break that down. In a boosting engine, as described above, the player can choose whether to use a resource or invest it to increase the flow of that resource in the future. In an economy, the player can use a resource to perform a needed action in the game—for example, using wood as a resource to construct a building. Or the player can trade the wood for bread to feed their workers—who can then go chop down more wood. In this case, the player gains capability by trading one resource for another, enabling them to get even more of the resource they had in the first place, typically after a delay that keeps the player from creating a runaway reinforcing loop.
在木材换面包的例子中，玩家可以选择将木材转化为木材，然后换取更多的面包。假设玩家控制的工人需要一块面包来砍伐一棵树并生产一块木材。如果玩家可以用一块木材换取两块面包，他们就有能力再砍伐两块木材，因此他们的能力就提高了（尽管会经过一段时间的延迟，比如在他们下一轮或类似情况下）。这就是经济强化循环的核心。参见图 7.9。
In the wood-for-bread example, the player could instead choose to convert their wood into lumber and exchange it for even more bread. Suppose that a worker controlled by the player requires one bread to cut down a tree and produce one wood. If the player can then trade one wood for two bread, they gain the ability to then chop down two more wood, so they have increased their capability (albeit after a delay, as on their next turn or similar). That is the core of the economic reinforcing loop. See Figure 7.9.
图 7.9一个经济系统，其内部循环是用木材换取面包，从而可以砍伐更多的木材，外部投资循环是建造锯木厂，将木材转化为木材，从而实现更有价值的交易
Figure 7.9 An economic system with an inner loop of trading wood for bread to allow the chopping of more wood, and an outer investment loop of building a sawmill to convert wood to lumber for a more valuable trade
进一步假设，如果玩家拥有锯木厂，工人可以将一块木材加工成一块木材，而一块木材可以换成四块面包。这会导致能力的强烈非线性增长，从而导致经济价值的非线性增长。在这种情况下，伐木工人从用木材换面包转变为用木材换面包的成本是玩家必须做以下事情：
Suppose further that if the player has a sawmill, a worker can convert one wood into one lumber—and one lumber can be exchanged for four bread. This creates a strongly nonlinear increase in ability and thus in economic value. The costs to the lumberjack player in this scenario for moving from trading wood for bread to lumber for bread are that the player has to do the following:
积累足够的木材来建造锯木厂（助推引擎投资）
Accumulate enough wood to construct the sawmill (boosting-engine investment)
派一名工人（一种潜在的稀缺资源）使用锯子将木材加工成木材，这样可以减少砍伐的木材数量
Devote a worker (a potentially scarce resource) to the saw to convert wood to lumber, so less wood is being chopped
花费更多时间将木材转化为木材
Take additional time to convert wood to lumber
偿还建造锯木厂所需的时间和木材的投资，否则他们本可以用这些钱直接换取面包
Pay back the investment of time and wood needed to create the sawmill and that they could have otherwise used to trade directly for bread
这些场景、成本和收益为玩家提供了一系列有趣的时间和投资决策，而这些决策是经济游戏玩法的核心。玩家试图通过交换和/或将一种资源转换为另一种资源来获得游戏环境中的能力和权力。
These scenarios, costs, and benefits provide the player with an interesting set of decisions of timing and investment that are at the heart of economic gameplay. The player is trying to gain ability and power within the context of the game by exchanging and/or converting one resource into another.
复杂性的不断显现
此类经济游戏玩法的另一个方面是，随着游戏的进展，玩家可以引入新对象和新能力，以及新资源和新货币（稍后介绍）。在上面的例子中，玩家在游戏早期可能只知道面包和木材。一旦他们掌握了有限的经济，游戏就会引入锯木厂作为新对象，木材作为新资源。这允许一个新的循环，扩展玩家的思维模型以及他们在游戏中可以做出的决定数量（何时建造锯木厂，投入多少工人而不是砍伐树木，等等），因为每个对象和资源都会开辟新的可能性。
One other aspect of economic gameplay like this is the ability to introduce new objects and abilities, along with new resources and currencies (described shortly), as the game progresses. In the example above, a player may know only about bread and wood early in the game. Once they have mastered that limited economy, the game introduces the sawmill as a new object and lumber as a new resource. These allow for a new loop, expanding the player’s mental model as well as the number of decisions they can make in the game (when to build the sawmill, how many workers to devote to it rather than to cutting down trees, and so on) since each object and resource opens up new possibilities.
许多具有经济循环的游戏都使用这一概念，通过引入随时间推移而引入的生产链。将木材转化为木材是一条短链。在同一款游戏中，玩家可能必须让其他工人开采矿石，将其转化为铁，再转化为钢，并将其转化为工具或武器。每一项都需要一栋新建筑、工人，以及潜在的知识或技能——因此，在用钢铁制造武器之前，你可能必须建造一所学院来培训铁匠（从未分化的工人转化而来）（图 7.10）。
Many games with economic loops use this concept by having production chains that are introduced over time. Converting wood to lumber is a short chain. In the same game, the player might have to have other workers who mine ore, convert it to iron, convert that to steel, and convert that to tools or weapons. Each one requires a new building, workers, and potentially knowledge or skills—so you might have to build an academy to train smiths (converted from undifferentiated workers) before you can make weapons with your steel (Figure 7.10).
对于喜欢挑战认知能力、建立和管理这些链条的玩家来说，这创造了引人入胜的游戏玩法。虽然所有这些都可以由一个玩家完成，但经济游戏玩法的一个方面使其如此有趣，那就是玩家还可以扮演专门的角色，创造一些资源并为其他资源进行交易：如果玩家没有现成的矿石供应，他们可能不会自己制造武器，或者他们必须购买石头来制作烟囱，将矿石提炼成铁。这种购买可能是从另一个玩家或游戏中的计算机驱动代理那里进行的；无论哪种方式，这都是资源和货币转换和交换的另一个例子，这是经济系统游戏玩法的核心。
For players who enjoy the cognitive challenges of building up and managing these chains, this creates engaging gameplay. While this can all be done by one player, one aspect of economic gameplay that makes it so interesting is that players can also take on specialized roles, creating some resources and trading for others: perhaps a player doesn’t make their own weapons if they don’t have a ready supply of ore, or they have to purchase the stone to make the chimney to refine the ore into iron. This purchase may be from another player or a computer-driven agent in the game; either way, it is another example of conversion and exchange of resources and currencies, which is the heart of economic-system gameplay.
经济系统游戏可以简单地开始，然后添加新的步骤和循环，随着玩家的进步逐渐展开越来越复杂的系统。玩家可以从简单的开始，比如说，有一个矿山，然后出售矿石，然后将矿石提炼成铁，发现它的售价足以抵消花费和额外步骤的合理性，最终一路发展拥有多条资源路径来生成武器和装甲以及许多其他基于生产的商品。
Economic-system games can start simply and add new steps and loops, gradually unfolding into greater and greater systemic complexity as the player progresses. The player may start simply, with say an ore mine and selling the ore, then refining the ore to iron and finding that it sells for enough more to justify the expense and extra steps, and eventually working all the way up to having multiple resource paths that generate weapons and armor, among many other production-based goods.
这种不断展开的附加系统为玩家提供了一种探索、掌握和成就感，因为他们的思维模式不断成长，他们可以在游戏中做更多的事情。随着游戏的复杂性不断增加，这为玩家提供了多个相互关联的系统循环的体验，这些循环创造了一个广阔的游戏空间，玩家可以在其中做出无数的决定。这创造了长期的参与度和对游戏的深刻乐趣。
This unfolding, additive system provides the player with a sense of exploration, mastery, and achievement as their mental model grows and he can do more in the game. As the game reveals increasing complexity, this provides the player with an experience of multiple interlocking systemic loops that create a broad play-space within which the player can make innumerable decisions. This creates long-term engagement and a deep sense of fun in the game.
货币
如前所述，经济通常使用货币作为一种催化资源。严格来说，货币是交换的，但不像资源那样被消耗，因此它们可以再次交换。如果上例中的伐木工人玩家可以使用银而不是木材来购买面包，而面包师玩家可以使用相同的银来购买小麦来制作面包，那么银就是双方都可以使用的货币，而不仅仅是在交易中转换的资源。就像化学催化剂一样，货币可以实现交换，但不会通过在交换过程中被消耗而直接参与交换。然而，在许多游戏经济中，货币在被使用时实际上会被销毁（通过水槽从经济中流出），即使它们不像资源那样从一种类型的对象转变为另一种类型的对象。
Economies often use currencies as a sort of catalytic resource, as described earlier. Strictly speaking, currencies are exchanged but not consumed as resources are, so they may be exchanged again. If the lumberjack player in the previous example could pay for bread using silver instead of wood, and if the baker player could then use that same silver to buy wheat to make bread, then the silver is a currency that is usable by both, and not just a resource that is converted in the transaction. Like a chemical catalyst, a currency enables the exchange but does not participate directly in it by being consumed during the exchange. However, in many game economies, currencies are effectively destroyed (drained out of the economy via a sink) when spent, even if they don’t transform from one type of object into another, as a resource does.
货币还有另一个重要属性：与可能只有一种或几种直接用途的资源不同，货币几乎可以用于任何形式的交换。因此，如果在角色扮演游戏中，玩家找到 1,000 枚金币，他们可能会将这些货币用于训练、更好的武器或盔甲或信息，或者将其保存起来以备日后使用。除了获得宝贵奖励的感觉之外，这还为玩家提供了多种选择。
Currencies have another important property as well: unlike resources that may have only one or a few direct uses, currencies can be used in almost any form of exchange. So if in a RPG a player finds 1,000 gold pieces, they may spend that currency on training, better weapons or armor, or information, or save them for spending later. This provides the player with a multitude of choices in addition to the feeling of having obtained a valuable reward.
然而，货币也存在通货膨胀和停滞的问题，本章后面会介绍。简而言之，玩家必须认为货币作为交换手段具有价值，否则它就只是一种烦恼或被忽略的东西。保持游戏内货币的平衡，使它们保留一定的价值，但又不会变得过于珍贵，这可能是一个困难的设计问题。必须从整个经济系统的角度来看待这个问题，而不是只看其中的一部分。通常需要大量的迭代设计和调整经济价值（资源创造率、价格等），才能创建一个稳定但仍然充满活力的经济。
However, currencies are also subject to the problems of inflation and stagnation, as described later in this chapter. In short, players must perceive a currency to have value as a means of exchange, or it just becomes an annoyance or something to be ignored. Keeping your in-game currencies in balance so that they retain some value without becoming overly precious can be a difficult design problem. This is something that must be viewed at the level of the whole economy as a system rather than by looking at only one part of it. It typically takes considerable iterative design and tweaking of economic values (resource creation rates, prices, and so on) to create a stable but still dynamic economy.
发动机经济
一个经济体通常会内置引擎作为辅助系统循环。在上面的例子中，伐木玩家可能必须决定是出售木材换取面包，还是投资建造锯木厂以获得更多面包，如图7.9所示。拥有可用于内部投资或有利可图的交易的资源来源是许多引人入胜的游戏的核心：玩家必须做出经济权衡决策，平衡短期需求和长期期望收益。
It is common for an economy to have engines built into it as subsidiary systemic loops. In the example above, the woodcutting player may have to decide whether to sell wood for bread or invest the wood in constructing a sawmill in order to get even more bread, as shown in Figure 7.9. Having sources that produce resources that can be used for internal investment or profitable exchange is the core of many engaging games: players must make economic trade-off decisions, balancing short-term needs with long-term desired gains.
经济示例
经济有多种形式，其中一些乍一看似乎并不特别“经济”。例如，在典型的角色扮演游戏中，玩家的核心循环可能就是经济。这个循环可以直截了当地描述为“杀死怪物，获得战利品，购买东西”。当然，它还有更多内容，尽管体验通常归结为这一点。具体来说，玩家为“战利品”交换的资源是他们的时间和（通常）他们角色的健康（有时还包括武器和盔甲疲劳等东西，因为这些东西在使用过程中会变弱）。从经济角度来看，玩家本质上是在说，“我将用我作为玩家的部分时间和我角色的部分健康来换取这个怪物将为我提供的战利品。”（但请注意，战斗本身是一种生态系统，作为整体经济的一个子系统而存在，本章后面将对此进行讨论。）
Economies come in many different forms, some of which don’t seem particularly “economic” at first glance. For example, in a typical role-playing game, the player’s core loop likely is an economy. This loop can be bluntly described as “kill monster, get loot, buy stuff.” There is more to it, of course, though the experience does often boil down to that. In particular, the resources that the player is exchanging for the “loot” are their time and (often) their character’s health (also sometimes things like weapon and armor fatigue, as these become weaker with use). In economic terms, the player is essentially saying, “I will trade some of my time as a player and some of my character’s health for the loot that this monster will provide to me.” (Note, however, that combat itself is an ecology that exists as a subsystem of the overall economy, as discussed later in this chapter.)
在用时间和健康换取战利品时，玩家赌的是他们的角色会在交换中获得新的能力，以经验值（或新技能）的形式出现，获得更好的武器和盔甲的潜力，以及可能购买新武器和盔甲或修复现有武器和盔甲的黄金。在与怪物的任何一次遭遇中，这些都不是必然的。在这方面，每次遭遇都会根据可变的时间表提供奖励——这是一种鼓励继续游戏的有力方法。可变时间表是心理学的一个术语，指的是某人因某种特定行为而在不同时间获得奖励，但不知道下一个奖励何时出现。你可能认为，按照固定的时间表获得奖励会带来最多的参与度和最佳的表现，但事实并非如此。可变时间表奖励会带来强烈的参与度（持续、专注的行为），并在每次奖励时在大脑中产生多巴胺激增——这对于快速行动/反馈互动特别有用（Zald 等人，2004 年）。这种奖励和由此产生的参与度是我们坚持玩游戏、赌博、购买股票和其他类似行为的重要方面。
In trading time and health for loot, the player is betting that their character will gain new abilities in the exchange, in the form of experience points (or new skills), the potential for better weapons and armor, and possibly gold with which they can buy new weapons and armor or repair the ones they have. None of these are assured in any given encounter with a monster. In that respect, each encounter provides a reward on a variable schedule—a powerful method for encouraging continued play. Variable schedule is a term from psychology used when someone is rewarded at various times for a particular behavior but doesn’t know when the next reward will appear. You might think that being rewarded on a regular schedule would create the most engagement and best performance, but this isn’t the case. A variable schedule reward creates strong engagement (persistent, focused behavior) and creates a spike of dopamine in the brain with each reward—making this particularly useful for fast action/feedback interactivity (Zald et al. 2004). This reward and resulting engagement is an important aspect of why we persist at playing games, gambling, purchasing stocks, and other similar behaviors.
许多游戏中也存在传统的贸易经济。在这些游戏中，一种资源通过直接易货或通过使用货币进行交换。每种资源对购买者来说都必须有价值（如木材换面包的例子）。在任何有效的经济中，购买者要么用他们购买的东西满足基本需求（食物、住所等），要么用它们来创造价值的增加——就像一个铁匠利用她的时间和技能将金属锭转化为武器、盔甲或装饰品一样。正是这种价值的增加最终推动了任何经济的发展，使整个循环不断自我强化。
Traditional trading economies also exist in many games. In these, resources of one type are exchanged for others, either by direct barter or mediated by the use of currencies. Each resource has to have value to the purchaser (as in the wood-for-bread example). In any working economy, purchasers either fulfill basic needs (food, shelter, and so on) with the things they buy, or they use them to create an increase in value—as with a smith who uses her time and skill to convert metal ingots into weapons, armor, or decorative objects. It is this increase in value that ultimately powers any economy, keeping the overall loop reinforcing itself.
从单一资源经济转向使用多种资源的经济，系统变得更加动态和不可预测。如果市场上有多个买家和卖家（无论是人类玩家还是 NPC），资源对不同参与者的相对价值将有所不同，这取决于他们的需求和预算限制。虽然价格保持动态，但随着时间的推移和大量交易，给定资源的价格将趋于稳定在一个相当狭窄的范围内（假设没有外部变化）。另一方面，如果给定资源的交易不多，考虑到任何给定时间的相对价值以及缺乏作为任何特定价格先例的一般历史，其价格可能会大幅波动。（此时，我们正站在微观经济学的边缘，这是一门独立的学科，也是本文所讨论的系统创建的极好的分析伴侣。然而，这超出了本书的范围。）
Moving beyond single-resource economies to those using multiple resources, the systems become far more dynamic and unpredictable. If there are multiple buyers and sellers in the market (whether human players or NPCs), resources will have different relative values to different actors, depending on their needs and budget constraints. While the prices remain dynamic, over time and numerous transactions, the prices for a given resource will tend to settle into a fairly narrow range (assuming no external change). On the other hand, if there aren’t many transactions for a given resource, its price may fluctuate wildly, given the relative value at any given time and lack of general history to act as a precedent for any particular price. (At this point, we stand on the precipice of microeconomics, an entire subject on its own and an excellent analytic companion to the kind of system creation discussed here. However, that is beyond the scope of this book.)
一般来说，如果更多人对某种资源感兴趣，其价格就会上涨。如果可用资源的数量减少，假设仍有潜在购买者对其感兴趣，情况也是如此。这是经典的供求经济规律：如果某种东西在市场上很容易买到，人们愿意为它支付的价格就会下降；但如果它变得稀缺，而人们仍然需要它，人们就会竞相竞价以获得这种资源，其价格就会上涨。如果卖家和买家能够达成双方都愿意进行交换的协议，经济就会发生。
In general, if more people are interested in a particular resource, its price goes up. The same is true if the amount of the resource available becomes reduced, assuming that there is still interest in it from potential purchasers. This is the classic economic law of supply and demand: if something is easily obtainable on the market, the price people are willing to pay for it drops; but if it becomes scarce and people still have a need for it, people will outbid each other trying to obtain the resource, and its price rises. The economy occurs if the sellers and buyers are able to come to an agreement where both are willing to make an exchange.
其中包含了反对许多游戏中常见的一些做法的论点。设计师通常希望在游戏中设定资源或商品的价格，而不是让它们根据供求关系浮动。在某种程度上，这是有道理的：玩家想要一致的体验，不想知道他们刚从野外运回来的蜥蜴皮突然变得一文不值。同时，将所有变化（所有“浮动”）从由所有销售的总体行为设定价格的市场中剔除，也会使经济失去活力和活力。除其他外，这意味着玩家需要做出的决定更少，因为他们不必寻找最佳销售地点，例如，因为他们知道他们的蜥蜴皮在任何地方都会以一定的价格出售，因为这已由游戏集中设定。这可以奏效，但它将经济简化为机械运动。这对您正在制作的游戏来说可能是也可能不是最好的。如果你希望玩家有机会做出经济决策，你需要允许价格有一定的变化。但是，如果对于玩家的体验来说，他们能够出售商品比获得最佳价格更重要，那么引入价格变化可能只会增加玩家的心理负担并增加他们的互动预算。
Contained in this is an argument against a few practices that are common in many games. Designers often want to set the prices for resources or goods in their games rather than let them float based on supply and demand. To some degree, this makes sense: players want a consistent experience and don’t want to know that the lizard hides they just hauled back from the wilderness are suddenly worthless. At the same time, taking all variation—all the “float”—out of the market where the aggregate action of all sales sets the price, also takes the dynamics and life out of the economy. Among other things, this means fewer decisions players have to make since they don’t have to look for the best place to sell, for example, since they know that their lizard hides will always sell for a certain amount in any location, as this has been centrally set by the game. This can work, but it reduces the economy to a mechanistic exercise. That may or may not be best for the game you’re making. If you want players to have the opportunity to make economic decisions, you need to allow for some variability in prices. If, however, it’s more important for the player’s experience that they are just able to sell their goods than that they get the best price, introducing pricing variability may just be adding to the player’s mental load and taxing their interactivity budget.
与集中定价类似，许多游戏都会提供拥有无限现金（或可交易资源）、无限库存和对玩家所售商品无限兴趣的供应商。如果 NPC 供应商以每张 1 金币的价格购买 10 张蜥蜴皮，他会以相同价格购买接下来的 10 张，以及接下来的 100 张或 1,000 张。与固定价格一样，这为玩家创造了一致的体验，但也带来了相对枯燥的体验，不会给玩家带来任何挑战或有意义的决定。
Similar to central price setting, many games provide vendors who have infinite cash (or resources to trade), infinite stock, and an infinite appetite for whatever the player is selling. If the NPC vendor buys 10 lizard skins for 1 gold piece each, he will buy the next 10—and the next 100 or 1,000—for the same amount. As with fixed prices, this creates a consistent experience for the player but also one that is relatively lifeless and presents no challenges or meaningful decisions to the player.
玩家对玩家之间的经济更具活力，很大程度上是因为玩家自己设定了他们交换的所有资源的价格。这可以创造大量的经济游戏，但也带来了重大问题，如下一节所述。
Player-to-player economies are far more dynamic in large part because the players themselves set the prices for all the resources they exchange. This can create terrific amounts of economic gameplay, but it also presents significant problems, as discussed in the following section.
经济问题
经济可能会遭受一些与助推引擎相同的问题。其中第一个问题是一个玩家能够利用强化循环为自己谋利并排除其他玩家。通过这样做，这个玩家可以快速在游戏中富人越来越富的场景。如果不加以控制，这种能力可能会导致一名玩家（或少数玩家）从游戏中获得不成比例的利益——即通过迫使其他玩家输掉而获胜。这往往是以牺牲其他玩家的乐趣为代价的，甚至是以牺牲他们在游戏中的存在为代价的。大富翁和风险等经典棋盘游戏基于在游戏过程中淘汰玩家直到只剩下一个玩家的理念。这是一种典型的零和观点（“我赢，你输”），从经济意义上讲，所有价值都集中在一名玩家身上。除非你想要制作一款极具竞争力的游戏，否则大多数人最终都不会享受其中的乐趣（除非他们发现潜在损失本身的刺激很有吸引力），而允许这种失控的经济情景不会创造出健康、引人入胜的游戏设计。
Economies can suffer from some of the same issues that can plague boosting engines. First among these is the problem where one player is able to harness the reinforcing loop to their advantage and the exclusion of others. By doing so, this player can quickly zoom ahead in an in-game rich-get-richer scenario. If unchecked, this capability can lead to one player (or a small number) gaining disproportionate benefit from the game—that is, winning based on forcing others to lose. This often comes at the cost of other players’ enjoyment, or even at the cost of their presence in the game. Classic board games like Monopoly and Risk are based on the idea of eliminating players as the game progresses until there is only one remaining. This is a classic zero-sum view (“I win, you lose”), where in an economic sense all value is concentrated in one player. Unless your desire is to make a hyper-competitive game, most people will not end up enjoying themselves (unless they find the thrill of potential loss itself attractive), and allowing this kind of runaway economic scenario will not create a healthy, engaging game design.
有多种方法可以防止或减轻失控的强化循环。如本章前面所述（以及本章后面关于生态的讨论），平衡循环可用于帮助落后者或减缓领先者的速度。这些技术有时统称为“橡皮筋”，其形象是强行将领先的玩家拉回或将落后的玩家拉前，就好像他们被一条已经达到极限的橡皮筋连接起来一样。（有时这也被称为“原谅失败者并惩罚胜利者”以保持游戏继续进行。）
There are a variety of ways to prevent or mitigate the runaway reinforcement loop. As discussed earlier in this chapter (and in the discussion of ecologies later in the chapter), balancing loops can be used to either help those lagging behind or slow those who are getting too far ahead. Collectively, these techniques are sometimes called “rubberbanding,” from the image of forcibly hauling back a leading player or bringing forward a lagging one, as if they were connected by an elastic band that has reached its limit. (Sometimes this is also referred to as “forgive losers and punish winners” to keep the game going.)
通常，一次性的尖锐平衡效果就足以作为纠正措施，例如，在《马里奥赛车》中，失败的玩家可以向领先的玩家扔出一个带刺的贝壳（通常称为“蓝色贝壳”），从而使他们停下几秒钟，让其他玩家赶上来。另一个类似的装置是《卡坦岛》游戏中的小偷。这并不会自动对领先的玩家使用，但玩家通常会尝试将其放在一个或多个领先玩家使用的土地上，以防止他们从该区域获取宝贵的资源，直到可以移动小偷为止。最后，内置效果（例如《电力网》中用于确定回合顺序的平衡循环）有助于防止一名玩家在经济状况突出的游戏中成功逃脱，从而有助于保持所有玩家的参与度和乐趣。
Often a sharp, one-time balancing effect is sufficient as a corrective action, as when a losing player in Mario Kart is able to lob a spiny shell (commonly known as the “blue shell”) at the player in first place, thereby stopping them for a few seconds while others catch up. Another similar device is the thief in the Settlers of Catan games. This isn’t automatically used against the leading player, but players typically try to put it on land used by one or more of the leading players to prevent them from gaining valuable resources from that area until the thief can be moved. Finally, built-in effects, like the balancing loop used in Power Grid to determine turn order, helps prevent one player from running away with success in a game with a prominent economy, thus helping to preserve the engagement and fun for all players.
通货膨胀
游戏经济出现问题并容易失败还有另外两种主要原因。第一种，如前所述，是主要强化循环太强。这也类似于引擎中常见的问题：如果交换或转换太容易或利润太高，玩家最终会拥有过多的资源，而没有足够的有意义的方式去使用它。在现实世界中，这是经济通货膨胀的典型原因，在游戏中也是如此。这个问题有时被称为“水龙头多于排水管”，因为资源大量涌入游戏，而流出的方式却太少。
There are two other main ways in which game economies experience issues and tend to fail. The first, as discussed earlier, is with a primary reinforcing loop that is too strong. This is also similar to a common problem seen in engines: if the exchange or conversion is too easy or too profitable, the player ends up with too much of a given resource and not enough meaningful ways to spend it. In the real world, this is a classic recipe for economic inflation, and the same is true in games. This problem is sometimes known as “more faucets than drains” because resources are pouring into the game and have too few ways to drain out of it.
然而，如果处理得当，这种通货膨胀至少在一段时间内可以用于增加玩家的参与度：如果玩家能够获得他们曾经认为无法获得的货币数量，然后用这些货币购买游戏中有意义的物品，他们就会感到自己很强大。当一个最初身无分文的卑微角色获得巨额财富，可以购买城堡或额外的生命时，他们会感到一种巨大的成就感。但前提是这些金额在游戏中仍然有意义。玩家可以在游戏中以某种方式使用它们。闲置游戏Adventure Capitalist一开始让玩家扮演经营柠檬水摊的企业家，赚取游戏中的货币美元。最终，如果玩家坚持下去，他们会发现自己购买和升级了电影制片厂、银行和石油公司，在这个过程中积累了超过 1100 万亿的财富——也就是 1 后面跟着 300 个零。5
However, handled carefully, this inflation can be used to increase the player’s engagement at least for a time: if players are able to gain amounts of currency that they once thought unattainable and then use that currency to purchase meaningful items in the game, they can feel powerful. When a lowly character who initially barely had two coppers to rub together attains vast sums of wealth that allow them to buy castles or extra lives, they can feel a great sense of achievement. But this is true only as long as the amounts remain meaningful in that the player can use them in some way in the game. The idle game Adventure Capitalist starts players as entrepreneurs running lemonade stands making a few dollars, the in-game currency. Eventually, if a player persists, they can find themselves purchasing and upgrading movie studios, banks, and oil companies, in the process accruing over $1 novemnonagintillion—that is a 1 followed by 300 zeros.5
这些钱是否有意义则是另外一个问题。很少有玩家能在游戏中坚持那么久，因为游戏玩法通常会在那之前就变得重复且没有意义。这款游戏和许多其他放置游戏部分解决这个问题的一种方法是创建另一个外部助推引擎循环，称为声望循环。随着玩家在游戏中的进展，他们会积累一种“声望”资源，比如《冒险资本家》中的天使投资人。与任何助推引擎一样，玩家可以选择在游戏中使用这种资源，也可以等到下一次迭代时“投资”它。当玩家发现他们目前的增长率太小，无法在短时间内产生任何有意义的收益时，他们可以重新开始游戏，只带上他们的声望资源，其他一切都会被清除，重新开始。然后，声望资源充当乘数，增加主要资源（《冒险资本家》中的现金）的增长率。这使得玩家能够快速通过现在无聊的较低游戏级别，并比上次取得更大的进步。当然，他们会继续积累声望资源，因此当游戏变得无聊时，他们会有动力再次循环外部声望循环。这种声望循环可以延长最专注的玩家的游戏寿命，并且是使用助推引擎结构的绝佳示例，它既可以使通货膨胀成为游戏的一部分，又可以延长玩家的游戏寿命。
Whether that amount of money is in any way meaningful is a different question. Few players last anywhere near that long in the game, as the gameplay typically becomes repetitive and not meaningful long before that. One way this and many other idle games have partially solved this problem is by creating another external boosting engine loop called the prestige loop. As the player progresses in the game, they accrue a “prestige” resource, such as angel investors in Adventure Capitalist. As with any boosting engine, the player can choose to use this resource in the game or wait and “invest” it in their next iteration of it. When the player sees that their current rate of increase is too small to yield any meaningful benefit in a short period of time, they can restart the game and carry over only their prestige resources, and everything else gets wiped clean for a fresh start. The prestige resources then act as a multiplier to increase the rate of increase of the primary resource (cash in Adventure Capitalist). This enables the player to quickly get past the now-boring lower levels of the game and progress even further than the last time. Of course, they continue to accrue their prestige resource, so they have an incentive to cycle through the outer prestige loop once again when the game becomes boring. This prestige loop increases the life span of the game for the most dedicated players and is a great example of using a boosting engine structure to both make inflation work as part of the gameplay and extend the life of the game for the player.
另一个经济通货膨胀的例子发生在《暗黑破坏神 II》的经济中。在这个奇幻角色扮演游戏中，每次你杀死一个怪物，金币就会从怪物身上倾泻而下，魔法物品也经常如此。虽然金币可以用作购买游戏中某些物品的货币，但玩家很快发现自己被金币淹没而毫无用处（水龙头比排水管多）。因此，在玩家对玩家的交易中，金币一文不值——典型的通货膨胀场景。玩家首先将各种宝石视为一种新的更有价值的货币（尽管是非官方的），但由于它们作为战利品的数量很多（在某种程度上是“骗子”——作弊的玩家自己复制物品），这些宝石也很快变得一文不值。随着时间的推移，玩家选择了一种名为乔丹之石（简称 SOJ）的物品作为首选货币，因为它体积小、价格昂贵且在游戏中很有用。然而，最终甚至连它都变得几乎一文不值，玩家最终将“高级符文”作为交换媒介。它们也很小（因此很容易运输）、昂贵且有用，而且与 SOJ 不同，它们具有不同的统计数据，因此被视为具有不同的价值，非常像现实世界中不同面额的纸币。
Another example of economic inflation occurred in the economy surrounding Diablo II. In this fantasy RPG, every time you killed a monster, gold coins rained out of it, and often magic items did as well. While gold could be used as a currency to purchase some items in the game, players quickly found themselves awash in it with no use for it (more faucets than drains). Thus, in player-to-player transactions, it was worthless—a classic inflationary scenario. Players turned to various gems first as a new more valuable (if unofficial) currency, but due in large part to the amount of them given as loot (and to some degree to “dupes”—cheating players duplicating items themselves), these also quickly became worthless. In time, players settled on an item called the Stone of Jordan, or SOJ for short, as the preferred currency, as it was small, expensive, and useful in the game. However, eventually even that became nearly worthless, and players finally turned to “high runes” as their medium of exchange. These were also small (so easily transported), expensive, and useful, and unlike the SOJ, they had different statistics and so became seen as having different values, acting very much like different denominations of real-world paper currency.
整个过程都是由于通货膨胀而发生的，因为有太强的强化循环将黄金和其他货币注入经济，而没有足够的内容让玩家满意：他们不再需要在经济中做出有意义的决定或为自己设定目标。几乎每个以经济为特色的游戏在某个时候都必须面对这个问题，因为在游戏的高端添加越来越多的内容而不让玩家感到无聊和重复变得越来越困难。
This entire process occurred due to inflation, due to having a too-strong reinforcing loop pouring gold and other currencies into the economy and not enough content to keep the players satisfied: they no longer had meaningful decisions to make or goals to set for themselves within the economy. This is a problem that almost every game that features an economy has to face at some point, as it becomes increasingly difficult to add more and more content at the high end of the game without it becoming boring and repetitious to players.
停滞
虽然不太常见，但经济也可能出现停滞。当资源或货币（金钱、战利品等）供应过于受限或留在游戏中的成本过高时，就会发生经济停滞。无论是哪种情况，玩家都认为保留一枚以高价赢得的硬币或战利品比花掉并在以后后悔更符合他们的最佳利益。或者，他们必须继续支付货币进行维护（一种制动引擎的形式），很快他们就没有足够的钱来维持他们的角色、军队、国家等。停滞很少见的原因之一是，当它开始发生时，玩家会停止玩游戏。没有什么能让他们留在那儿，尤其是当游戏不再有趣时，他们会离开，游戏及其经济会慢慢陷入痛苦的停滞状态。
Though it’s less common, stagnation can also occur in an economy. Economic stagnation happens when the supply of resources or currency (money, loot, and so on) is too constrained or when the costs of remaining in the game are too high. In either case, players believe it is in their best interest to hang on to a dearly won coin or bit of loot rather than spend it and regret doing so later. Alternatively, they have to continue paying out currency for maintenance (a form of braking engine), and soon they simply do not have enough to keep their character, army, nation, and so on, going. One of the reasons stagnation is rare is because when it begins to happen, players simply stop playing the game. Nothing is keeping them there, especially when the game ceases to be fun, so they leave, and the game—and its economy—slowly grind to a painful halt.
在游戏中，当设计师过于专注于平衡游戏内经济时，就会发生经济停滞——拒绝让强化循环发挥作用，让经济增长——以至于他们剥夺了它的活力。的确，减少主要强化循环可以防止通货膨胀问题，但这样做也会消除任何有用的经济梯度：当没有人认为交易对自己有利时，就不会进行交易，最终就没有经济。回想一下，系统循环需要各部分之间的相互作用。在经济系统中，如果没有交换或转换两种资源的互动，那么就没有系统，因此，如果这是一个核心循环，就没有游戏。
In games economic stagnation happens when designers are so intent on balancing their in-game economy—refusing to let the reinforcing loop do its work and allow the economy to grow—that they take the life out of it. It’s true that reducing the primary reinforcing loop will prevent inflationary problems, but doing so can also remove any useful economic gradient: when no one feels that a trade is in their favor, then no trades are made and ultimately there is no economy. Recall that a systemic loop requires interaction between parts. In an economic system, if there are no interactions that exchange or convert two resources, then there is no system, and thus, if this is a core loop, there is no game.
生态
Ecologies
生态系统与制动引擎一样，具有一个主要的平衡回路或一组回路，而不是一个强化回路。在这个平衡回路中，资源像在经济中一样进行交换，但交换的方式是每个部分最终都会平衡而不是强化其他部分。在整体平衡回路中，生态系统通常具有强化回路，这些回路作为子系统本身存在于各个部分中（如图 7.6和7.7所示），但这些并不是系统结构的主要驱动力。
Like a braking engine, an ecology system has a predominant balancing loop, or set of loops, rather than a reinforcing one. In this balancing loop, resources are exchanged as they are in an economy, but they are exchanged such that each part ultimately balances rather than reinforces the others. Within the overall balancing loop, ecologies typically have reinforcing loops that exist within the parts as subsystems themselves (as shown in Figures 7.6 and 7.7), but these are not the primary driver of the system structure.
在生态系统中，虽然总体目标是平衡而不是无限制的增长，但这并不意味着系统接近停滞。如第 1 章和第2 章所述，健康的生态系统处于亚稳态，也称为内部平衡或动态平衡。生态系统中的部分在不断变化，但从整体上看，系统保持平衡。这可以从前面讨论的鹿/狼的例子以及第 2 章中关于山猫和野兔捕食者-猎物关系的讨论中看出（参见图 2.10）以及将狼重新引入黄石国家公园的“营养级联”例子（参见图 2.22）。
In an ecology, while the overall target is balance rather than unrestrained growth, this does not mean that the system approaches stagnation. As discussed in Chapters 1 and 2, a healthy ecology is in a state of metastability, also known as internal equilibrium or dynamic balance. The parts within the ecological system are constantly changing, but viewed as a whole, the system remains balanced. This can be seen in the deer/wolf example discussed earlier and in the discussion in Chapter 2 of the lynx and hare predator–prey relationship (refer to Figure 2.10) and the “trophic cascade” example of wolves being reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park (refer to Figure 2.22).
原则上，图 7.7所示的生态环境相当容易理解：植物生长，鹿吃掉它们，从而产生更多的鹿（粗略地说）。狼吃掉鹿，从而产生更多的狼。最终鹿和狼死亡，分解并为植物提供更肥沃的土壤。虽然这个循环中的每个部分（植物、鹿和狼）都在试图最大化其增长（每个部分都是具有内部循环的子系统，如图7.6所示），但总体而言，它们通过自己的行为相互制衡；实际上，它们一起充当彼此的制动引擎。鹿吃植物，平衡植物的生长，狼吃鹿，平衡鹿的生长。狼被称为“顶级捕食者”，这意味着它们通常几乎没有或根本没有直接的竞争对手或捕食者。由于它们巨大的代谢需求和缓慢的生长，这类动物的数量也往往很少——这也为它们的数量创造了平衡因素。因此，它们的数量增长并不是受到掠食的限制，而是受到食物来源相对稀缺的限制。
In principle, the kind of ecology shown in Figure 7.7 is fairly easy to understand: plants grow and deer eat them, making more deer (loosely speaking). Wolves eat the deer, making more wolves. And eventually deer and wolves die, decomposing and making more fertile soil for the plants. While each part in this loop—plants, deer, and wolves—is trying to maximize its growth (each is a subsystem with internal loops, as shown in Figure 7.6), overall they act by their behavior to counterbalance each other; in effect, together they act as braking engines against each other. The deer eat the plants, balancing their growth, and the wolves eat the deer, balancing theirs. Wolves are known as an “apex predator,” meaning they typically have few or no direct competitors or predators. Such animals also tend to be few in number due to their enormous metabolic needs and slow growth—which also create balancing factors on their population. Their population growth is thus not constrained by predation but by the relative scarcity of their food sources.
不同类型的生态
并非所有的生态系统都是生物性的，即使从模拟的角度来看也是如此。大多数以平衡循环和资源交换为主的系统都可以被分析为生态系统。例如，角色扮演游戏中的库存系统可以看作是简单的生态系统。你放入角色库存的东西越多，你携带的空间就越少（“东西”和“空间”是交换并相互平衡的资源部分）。在某些游戏中，例如《暗黑破坏神 II》，这种情况发展到了极致，每个棋子不仅争夺空间作为一种抽象资源，而且还争夺特定的空间配置。
Not all ecologies are biological, even in terms of simulation. Most systems with a predominantly balancing loop and an exchange of resources can be analyzed as ecologies. For example, inventory systems in role-playing games can be seen as simple ecological systems. The more stuff you put into your character’s inventory, the less space you have to carry more (“stuff” and “space” being the resource parts that are exchanged and that balance each other). In some games, like Diablo II, this is carried to an extreme, with each piece competing not just for space as an abstract resource but for a particular configuration of space.
战斗也可以看作是一种生态：双方或多方（例如玩家角色与怪物）试图通过行动来“平衡”对方——说得好听点就是他们每个人都试图杀死对方。在这样做的过程中，假设玩家角色是胜利者（剩余的未平衡的子系统），获得的奖励会反馈到他们的整体经济循环中。
Combat can also be considered an ecology: two or more sides (player character versus monster, for example) attempt to “balance” each other by their actions—a nice way of saying that they each try to kill the other. In doing so, assuming that the player character is the victor (the remaining subsystem that is not balanced out of existence), the rewards gained feed back into their overall economic loop.
许多游戏还具有重要的社会生态。MMO 游戏《卡美洛的黑暗时代》中，不同派系之间有所谓的“王国对王国”的战斗。游戏中有三个派系，即阿尔比恩、海伯尼亚和米德加德。每个派系的成员都为争夺统治地位而互相争斗。拥有三个派系或王国的有趣之处在于，这让整个王国系统保持了亚稳态的动态平衡：如果其中一个王国变得过于强大，其他两个王国的成员就会暂时结盟，打倒领导者。这导致了一种不断变化的平衡，避免了停滞，因此让玩家非常满意。如果游戏中只有两个王国，平衡循环就会被一个强化循环所淹没：一旦一方获得霸权，玩家就会开始涌向获胜的一方，从而形成一种失控的富人越来越富的局面，让另一个王国无法赶上。事实上，这在早期的魔兽世界服务器上也曾发生过：由于各种原因（包括联盟角色更有吸引力），更多玩家在联盟一方比在部落一方玩得更多。在允许玩家对战的服务器上，联盟通常占主导地位。游戏对可用角色类型进行了大量更改，并引入了其他激励措施，才开始平衡这一问题，尽管可以说它从未得到完全纠正——而且肯定从未接近过有机、动态的平衡，就像《亚瑟王的黑暗时代》中那样。
Many games also have important social ecologies. The MMO Dark Age of Camelot had what it called “Realm vs. Realm” combat for different factions. There were three factions in the game, Albion, Hibernia, and Midgard. Members of each fought the others for dominance. The interesting thing about having three factions, or Realms, is that this kept the overall realm system in a metastable dynamic balance: if ever one of the Realms became too powerful, members of the other two would temporarily ally with each other to take down the leader. This led to a constantly changing balance that avoided stasis and was thus highly satisfying for the players. Had there been only two Realms in the game, the balancing loop would have been swamped by a reinforcing one: as soon as one side gained supremacy, players would begin to flock to the winning side, creating a runaway rich-get-richer scenario and making it impossible for the other realm to catch up. This is in fact what happened on many early World of Warcraft servers: for a variety of reasons (including just that the Alliance characters were more attractive), more players played on the Alliance side than on the Horde side. On servers that allowed player-versus-player combat, the Alliance was regularly dominant. It took a number of changes to the character types available and other incentives to begin to balance this, though it arguably has never been completely corrected—and certainly has never approached an organic, dynamic balance, as in Dark Age of Camelot.
生态失衡
对于任何受平衡回路主导的交换系统来说，可能出现的主要问题要么是平衡过于静态因而无趣，要么是平衡失控并破坏整个系统。
With any system of exchange that is dominated by a balancing loop, the primary problems that can occur have to do with either balance that is too static and is therefore boring or balance that veers out of control and wrecks the overall system.
平衡系统有时被描述为具有弹性或脆弱性：在一定变化范围内，生态系统可以重新平衡。然而，在某个时候，系统会达到无法恢复平衡的临界点。当生理系统作为一种微型生态系统（我们在这里使用的术语）时，尽管受到外界影响，但其内部仍处于动态平衡状态，则称其处于体内平衡状态。室外气温可能比你的体温高或低，但你的身体会努力将体温保持在一个非常狭窄的范围内。只要你的身体能保持体温平衡，系统就能抵御外界变化。然而，在某个时候，身体的恢复能力和重新平衡能力就会崩溃：你的身体开始感到寒冷或过热。如果这种情况持续下去，身体系统本身就会关闭，无法恢复。当这种情况发生时，身体作为一个系统就从有弹性变成了脆弱：系统无法恢复平衡，无法恢复平衡。
Balancing systems are sometimes described as being resilient or brittle: within a certain range of change, the ecology can rebalance itself. At some point, however, the system reaches a point of no return from which it cannot rebalance. Physiological systems are said to be in homeostasis when they are, as a sort of mini-ecology (in the terms we are using here), in dynamic balance internally despite outside influences. The outside air temperature may be hotter or colder than your body temperature, but your body will work hard to keep its temperature within a very narrow range. As long as your body can keep your temperature balanced, the system is resilient to outside changes. At some point, though, the body’s ability to be resilient and rebalance breaks down: your body begins to freeze or overheat. If this continues, the body system itself will shut down, unable to recover. When this happens, the body as a system has gone from being resilient to brittle: there is a point of no return where the system cannot balance itself.
构建游戏系统的问题在于，很难知道生态系统何时变得脆弱。如果你有一个山猫和野兔生态系统，你看到野兔数量急剧下降，你可能会认为这个系统已经变得脆弱，很快就会全部灭绝。一旦你开始发现这种循环在正常的历史参数范围内，你就可以更好地检测系统何时处于健康的动态平衡状态，何时即将偏离边缘而无法挽回。在具有足够历史数据的大型生态系统中，可以构建数学模型来显示整个系统何时“受控”或“失控”。这些是统计过程控制中使用的术语。本质上，如果资源与历史平均值的偏差超过三个标准差，则该过程失控，系统极有可能变得脆弱并崩溃。不幸的是，在动态平衡系统中，检测到这种缺乏控制的情况可能为时已晚，并且在游戏中很少有足够的数据来构建资源变化价值的历史模型。
The problem in building game systems is that it can be very difficult to know when an ecological system has become brittle. If you had a lynx and hare ecology going and you saw the hare population nose-diving, you might think that the system had fallen over into being brittle and that soon everything would die off. Once you begin to see that such cycles are within normal historical parameters, you can better detect when the system is in a healthy dynamic balance and when it is about to veer off an edge with no chance of return. In large ecologies with sufficient historical data, it’s possible to construct mathematical models to show when the overall system is “in control” or “out of control.” These are terms used in statistical process control. Essentially, if a resource ever goes more than three standard deviations from its historical mean, the process is out of control, and the system is in severe danger of becoming brittle and collapsing. Unfortunately, in dynamic balancing systems, it can be too late when this lack of control is detected, and in games it is rare to have sufficient data on which to build a historical model of a resource’s changing value.
虽然对生态系统进行一定程度的控制很重要，但试图过于严格地控制这样一个系统的危险在于，你可能会“过度转向”，导致另一种脆性故障，或者造成一种强制的静态性质，而不是允许系统本身的动态平衡发生。例如，在战略游戏中，如果很明显一种单位类型的强大程度远远超过其成本平衡程度，玩家很快就会发现这是一种主导策略，并尽可能多地建造这种类型的单位。这很快就会破坏整个战斗生态的平衡，就像入侵物种在现实生态系统中占领生物群落一样。如果不尽快纠正这种情况，玩家将只建造这种类型的单位，从而破坏游戏空间（没有决策可做），并降低他们的参与度和游戏性。纠正这种情况的一种冲动可能是创建一种专门对抗第一种单位的新单位。这里的问题是，如果新单位太强大（通常称为“过于强大”或 OP），玩家就会开始专门使用该单位。然后引入另一个单位来对抗第二个单位的诱惑非常大，很快游戏就会开始感觉像那首关于一个吞下苍蝇的女人和她越来越不合情理的摆脱苍蝇的尝试的老歌。6
While some amount of control of an ecological system is important, the danger in trying to control such a system too tightly is that you can either “oversteer,” leading to a different brittle failure, or create an enforced static nature, rather than allowing the system’s own dynamic balance to occur. For example, in a strategic game, if it becomes clear that one unit type is far stronger than is balanced with its cost, players will quickly detect this as a dominant strategy and build that type of unit as much as possible. This quickly unbalances the overall combat ecology, much like an invasive species taking over a biome in a real-world ecology. If this isn’t corrected soon, players will build only that type of unit, collapsing the game-space (with no decisions left to make) and reducing their engagement and gameplay. One impulse in correcting this kind of situation can be to create a new kind of unit that specifically counters the first one. The problem here is that if the new unit is too powerful (often called “overpowered” for its cost, or OP), players begin to use that unit exclusively. Then the temptation to introduce another unit to counter the second one is very high, and soon the game begins to feel like the old song about a woman who swallowed a fly and her increasingly implausible attempts to get rid of it.6
或者，一些设计师试图压制所有可能的不确定性，以确保这样的系统完全平衡，即使以完全静态的方式。这样做通常是为了确保玩家获得一致的体验。然而，从游戏的角度来看，这很快就会变得无聊和缺乏吸引力，因为玩家没有心理模型可以构建，也没有决定可以做出。从系统的角度来看，这也导致了另一种形式的脆弱性：因为系统本身不是动态平衡的，它无法对任何重大的外部影响做出有效反应，因此如果系统中的任何东西影响到它，它就会很快崩溃。回到体内平衡和体温的例子，如果你的体温被锁定在 37°C，你的身体就无法对凉风或温暖的阳光做出有效反应：两者都会导致不成比例的能量消耗来让你的身体保持单一的锁定温度，而这很快就会被外部条件的轻微变化所淹没。你的生理系统很快就会变得脆弱和失效。
Alternatively, some designers try to clamp down on all possible uncertainty to ensure that such a system is completely balanced, if in a completely static manner. This is often done for the purpose of ensuring a consistent experience for the player. In game terms, however, this becomes boring and un-engaging quickly, as there is no mental model for the players to construct and there are no decisions for them to make. In systemic terms, this also gives rise to a different form of brittleness: because the system is not dynamically balancing itself, it cannot react effectively to any significant outside influence, and so it will break down quickly if anything in the system of which it is a part affects it. To go back to the example of homeostasis and body temperature, if your temperature were locked to 37°C, your body would be unable to react effectively to a cool breeze or a warming ray of sunshine: either one would cause a disproportionate expenditure of energy to keep your body at the single locked temperature, and this would quickly be overwhelmed by even mild changes to external conditions. Your physiological systems would quickly become brittle and fail.
合并循环
Combining Loops Together
引擎、经济和生态通常可用作主要的系统循环类型；许多更具体的模式（游戏机制）可从这些模式中创建出来。人们已做出许多努力来创建模式或机制的清单或更详细的列表，其中一些可能会很有用，尤其是 Bjork 和 Holopainen（2004 年）以及 Adams 和 Dormans（2012 年）。然而，许多游戏设计师发现这种详细的列表用处有限，他们更喜欢使用更通用的模式（例如这些模式）作为构建特定游戏系统的分层构建块。
Engines, economies, and ecologies are generally useful as primary system loop types; many more specific patterns—game mechanics—can be made from these. Many efforts have been made to create inventories or more detailed lists of patterns or mechanics, some of which you may find useful—in particular, Bjork and Holopainen (2004) and Adams and Dormans (2012). However, many game designers find such detailed lists to be of limited use and prefer instead to work with more general patterns like these as hierarchical building blocks for constructing specific gameplay systems.
一款游戏很少只包含一个系统或一个游戏机制。大多数游戏都是在不同层次组织下运行的系统的组合，其中一个系统是更大系统的一部分。
It’s rare for a game to have only one system or one game mechanic in it. Most games are combinations of systems operating at different hierarchical levels of organization, with one system being a part in the context of a larger system.
例如，在角色扮演游戏中，通常存在以玩家角色在游戏中的进程为中心的主要强化经济：玩家角色旨在成为随着时间的推移，玩家将变得更加强大，用时间（和生命值等）换取经验和战利品，从而增加生命值、技能、更好的工具等等（见图7.11）。然而，在这个高层次的描述中，可能还有许多其他系统：经验或技能提升引擎，玩家必须选择何时以及如何投资点数；7 个经济系统，如物品制作或交易；或生态库存系统，如前所述。也可能有一个基于角色的经济系统，由一个团队的不同成员组成，每个成员都通过某种形式的交换来增强其他人的能力（例如，强悍的“坦克”角色吸收对手的伤害，而远程攻击角色从远处造成伤害，而治疗者角色保持坦克的健康）。通常，在玩家角色的整体经济系统中存在某种形式的战斗生态系统，并且，如本章前面所述，可能有一个或多个平衡系统（即制动引擎）阻止玩家进展过快。这些通常是更大系统的一部分，就像能量或体力的损失（必须随着时间的推移而恢复）是许多免费游戏中整体战斗系统的一部分一样。总之，这些系统说明了为什么设计角色扮演游戏会如此复杂，以及为什么玩角色扮演游戏会如此引人入胜：有许多不同的系统同时运行，玩家试图在组织层次的不同级别上最大限度地利用它们。
For example, in role-playing games there is typically a primary reinforcing economy centered on the player character’s progression in the game: the player character is intended to become more powerful over time by trading time (and hit points, and so on) for experience and loot, resulting in increased hit points, skill, better tools, and so on (see Figure 7.11). Within this high-level description, however, there may be many other systems: an experience- or skill-boosting engine, where the player has to choose when and how to invest points;7 economic systems like item crafting or trading; or an ecological inventory system, as discussed earlier. There may also be a role-based economic system of different members of a party, each reinforcing the others’ abilities by a form of exchange with their own (for example, tough “tank” characters absorb damage from opponents while ranged attack characters do damage from afar and while healer characters keep the tank in good health). There is typically some form of combat ecological system that exists within the overall player character economic system, and, as described earlier in this chapter, there may be one or more balancing systems (that is, braking engines) that prevent the player from progressing too quickly. These are often part of a larger system, as with the loss of energy or stamina (which must then regenerate over time) being part of an overall combat system in many free-to-play games. Altogether these systems illustrate why designing RPGs can be so complex and why playing them can be so engaging: there are many different systems operating at the same time, and the player is trying to maximize all of them at different levels of organizational hierarchy.
图 7.11典型的角色扮演游戏强化/经济系统，用于提高角色在技能和物品方面的能力。整个系统由引擎、经济和生态子系统组成。请注意，为了清晰起见，许多子系统之间的交互并未显示出来（例如，库存生态和物品经济之间的交互）
Figure 7.11 A typical role-playing game reinforcing/economic system for increasing character power in terms of skills and items. The overall system is made of engine, economy, and ecology subsystems. Note that for clarity, many interactions between subsystems are not shown (for example, the interactions between the inventory ecology and the item economy)
图 7.11中显示的子系统相互作用，它们在整体经济中相互加强：玩家的技能和库存越多，队伍中的角色越多，他们击败怪物的能力就越强。他们击败的怪物越多，获得的经验和战利品就越多。虽然战斗的平衡性质（平衡/降低角色的能力并调节他们的整体进度）和库存生态系统可能会迫使角色做出艰难的决定（例如，关于保留或丢弃什么），从而可能减少角色进步的强化循环，但主要的系统效应是强化和增加角色整体力量的循环之一。
As the subsystems shown in Figure 7.11 interact, they reinforce each other in an overall economy: the more the player has in skills and inventory, and the more characters they have in their party, the better able they will be to defeat monsters. The more monsters they defeat, the more experience and loot they gain. While the balancing nature of combat (balancing/reducing the character’s abilities and regulating their overall progress) and inventory ecological system may force the character to make difficult decisions (for example, about what to keep or throw away), and thus potentially reduce the reinforcing loop of the character’s progression, the predominant systemic effect is one of a loop reinforcing and increasing the character’s overall power.
整合所有系统
通过查看角色扮演游戏的系统（如我们刚才所见），您可以了解设计层次结构的系统如何创造更广泛、更深入的游戏体验。当玩家将注意力从一个子系统转移到另一个子系统或最高级别的系统循环时，核心循环可能会发生变化。多个系统并行工作为玩家提供了更多类型的活动，从而扩大了游戏广度。设计嵌套系统时，玩家可以在思维上放大较低级别的子系统或缩小到较高级别的子系统（如图7.6、7.7和7.11所示），这为游戏提供了可理解的复杂性，从而增加了游戏深度。这就是二阶设计创造游戏空间的方式，因为玩家在每个系统和子系统中都有目标和决策。而且，通过随着时间的推移仔细揭示这些系统的复杂性，游戏可以帮助玩家以一种引人入胜的方式建立一个心理模型：随着层次结构中每个新系统的揭示，玩家获得新的知识，新的决定，以及在世界上采取行动的新方式，以及基于这些因素的新成就感。
Viewing a role-playing game’s systems as we’ve just looked at them shows you how designing a hierarchy of systems creates a broader and deeper play experience. The core loop can change as the player shifts focus from one subsystem to another or to the highest-level systemic loop. Having multiple systems working in parallel gives players more kinds of things to do, providing game breadth. Designing nested systems with the ability for the player to mentally zoom in on a lower-level subsystem or zoom out to a higher-level one (as in Figures 7.6, 7.7, and 7.11) provides comprehensible complexity in the game and thus game depth. This is how second-order design creates a space for play, as the player has goals and decisions within each system and subsystem. And, by revealing the complexities of these systems carefully over time, the game can help the player build a mental model of it in an engaging way: as each new system in a hierarchy is revealed, the player gains new knowledge, new decisions, and new ways to act within the world, along with a new sense of achievement based on these factors.
游戏系统示例
Examples of Game Systems
正如本章前面所讨论的，引擎、经济和生态系统可以形成各种系统，尤其是当它们组合在一起形成层次化的系统时。虽然不可能列出所有可能组装这些系统的方式（这样的列表不是很系统化！），但我们可以从主要循环、内部的子系统以及它们如何与其他系统协作来帮助创建所需游戏体验的统一整体的角度来研究一些众所周知的系统。
As discussed earlier in this chapter, engines, economies, and ecologies can form all sorts of systems, especially when combined together as hierarchical systems of systems. While an exhaustive list of all the possible ways these kinds of systems could be assembled isn’t possible (such a list wouldn’t be very systemic!), we can examine some well-known kinds systems in terms of their primary loops, what subsidiary systems they have inside them, and how they work with other systems to help create the unified whole of the desired game experience.
进阶系统
几乎所有游戏都为玩家提供了某种进步方式——提高能力、力量、资源或知识。游戏中的能力或力量与玩家对游戏的了解密切相关。随着他们对游戏世界的了解越来越多（使用知识作为游戏资源），玩家能够做得更多，表现得更好。同样，随着他们构建游戏的心理模型，他们能够使用自己的内部工具和技能更有效地驾驭游戏系统。进步的形式是增加玩家可以做的不同事情的数量（由于意识到更多并行“更深层次的系统和更深层次的系统”是帮助玩家建立有效心智模型的好方法；这种方法可以一点一点地介绍游戏概念，同时让玩家有一种逐渐掌握游戏概念的感觉。
Nearly all games present the player with some way to progress—to increase in ability, power, resources, or knowledge. In-game ability or power works hand-in-hand with a player’s knowledge of the game. As they gain more knowledge of the game world (using knowledge as an in-game resource), a player is able to do more and perform better. Similarly, as they construct their mental model of the game, they gain the ability to navigate the game’s systems more effectively, using their own internal tools and skills. Progression in the form of increasing the number of different kinds of things the player can do (due to being aware of more parallel systems and a deeper hierarchy of systems) is a good way to help the player build an effective mental model; this method introduces game concepts little by little and gives the player a feeling of increasing mastery at the same time.
由于进程循环非常普遍，并且很容易让玩家获得奖励，因此它们通常构成游戏的核心循环。它们与玩家和游戏之间的互动循环密切相关，玩家会因其行为而获得积极的反馈和奖励，然后促使玩家做出新的选择和行动。诸如“玩家做什么？”之类的问题通常会简化为“玩家如何进步？”由于循环的强化性质，这些系统是经济体或引擎，并且通常内置了任一类型的子系统。
Because progression loops are so pervasive and so easily rewarding to players, they often form the core loop of a game. They map closely to the interactive loop between player and game, where the player receives positive feedback and reward for their actions that then impel the player on to new choices and actions. Questions such as “What does the player do?” often reduce to “How does the player progress?” Because of the reinforcing nature of the loops, these systems are economies or engines and often have subsystems of either type built in.
为玩家提供一些进步的方式，提高他们在游戏中的能力，是将玩具变成游戏的有效方法。如第 3 章所述，没有明确目标的游戏通常被称为玩具。一些游戏设计师（主要担任玩具制造者或发明家，如第 5 章“担任系统游戏设计师”所述）往往很容易想出一个小型游戏系统或机制，最初看起来很有吸引力，但随后却无法吸引玩家的兴趣超过几秒钟或几分钟。对这些的反应通常是“这很棒……但玩家会用它做什么？”有些玩具作为玩具很好 - 但添加明确的目标，从而添加某种进度系统，是将玩具变成游戏并建立更长期参与度的好方法。
Giving the player some way to progress, to increase their abilities in the game, can be a useful way to turn a toy into a game. As discussed in Chapter 3, games without explicit goals are often referred to as toys. It’s often easy for some game designers (those who operate primarily as toymakers or inventors, as discussed in Chapter 5, “Working as a Systemic Game Designer”) to come up with a small game system or mechanism that seems initially attractive but then fails to hold the player’s interest for more than a few seconds or minutes. The reaction to these is often along the lines “that’s neat…but what does the player do with it?” Some toys are fine as toys—but adding explicit goals, and therefore a progression system of some sort, can be a great way to turn a toy into a game and build in longer-term engagement.
进程系统可以看作是单位时间内获得的奖励或资源。根据游戏的不同，这种增加或奖励可能是经验值、金币、部队数量或其他东西，也可能不那么容易量化，更多地是指玩家心智模型和认知工具的增加，这些认知工具可以操纵游戏系统来为自己谋利。正如我们将在第 10 章中讨论的那样，确定进程的维度是标记游戏设计的一个重要方面：玩家可以获得健康、魔法、知识、物品和/或其他资源，每种资源都必须在设计中指定为不同部分的状态。
Progression systems can be thought of in terms of reward or resource gain per unit time. This increase or reward might be experience points, gold, number of troops, or something else, depending on the game, or it might be less quantifiable, more in terms of the increase in the player’s mental model and the cognitive tools they possess to manipulate the game’s systems to their advantage. As we will discuss in Chapter 10, determining the dimensions for progression is an important aspect of tokenizing a game’s design: the player may gain health, magic, knowledge, items, and/or other resources, each of which must be specified in the design as the state of different parts.
对于玩家在游戏中前进的每个维度，必须指定一个增长率。在许多情况下，不仅进步资源的数量会增加，而且增长率本身也会随着时间的推移而增加。这既保持了奖励的理想质量，又防止了奖励的重要性随着玩家经历所谓的习惯化或享乐疲劳而逐渐消退。
For each in-game dimension along which a player progresses, a rate of increase must be specified. In many cases, not only does the amount of a progressing resource increase but the rate itself increases over time. This both maintains the aspirational quality of the reward and prevents the reward from fading in significance as the player experiences what is known as habituation or hedonic fatigue.
习惯与效用
不断增加的奖励让玩家有了追求的目标。如果今天的奖励是 10 分，但他们知道以后可以做一些值得获得 50 分或 100 分奖励的事情，那么这个未实现的目标就会驱动他们的行为——只要这个目标仍然有意义，奖励感觉很重要。其核心在于，对于我们人类来说，是欲望而不是拥有驱动着注意力和行为——从而推动着参与度。拥有更高的目标，即使最初看起来遥不可及，也有助于维持玩家的参与度。然而，如果玩家意识到他们已经实现了所有目标——他们打败了最大的怪物，获得了最有价值的宝藏等等——那么他们的参与度就会迅速下降。
Increasing rewards give the player something to aspire to—a goal to shoot for. If today their reward is 10 points but they know that later they could do something that merits a reward of 50 or 100 points, this unmet goal will drive their behavior—as long as the goal remains meaningful and the reward feels significant. The heart of this is that for we humans, wanting rather than having drives attention and behavior—and thus engagement. Having a higher goal, even one that seems ridiculously out of reach initially, helps maintain players’ engagement. If, however, a player realizes they have achieved everything they can—they have beaten the biggest monster, obtained the most valuable treasure, and so on—then their engagement quickly drops off.
当我们习惯或适应现有情况时，也会因失去对奖励的感知重要性而失去参与度：无论当前的奖励有多好，我们都会很快厌倦它们；如前所述，这称为享乐疲劳（或有时称为享乐适应或饱足）。在经济学中，这被称为边际效用，它与某物的价值（或效用）随着你得到更多而如何变化有关。例如，第一口冰淇淋很棒。第三口还可以。到第二十口时，你可能真的根本不想再吃了：所以 20 口冰淇淋的价值并不是 1 口的 20 倍！如果你被迫吃太多冰淇淋，效用实际上会降至零以下；你真的不想再吃了。8 （这已经使用冰淇淋等进行了实证检验，你可以亲自尝试看看这种效果 [Mackenzie 2002]。）
The loss of engagement due to a loss of perceived significance of rewards also happens when we get used to, or habituate to, an existing situation: no matter how good the current rewards are, we quickly tire of them; as mentioned earlier, this is called hedonic fatigue (or sometimes hedonic adaptation or satiation). In economics, this is known as marginal utility, and it has to do with how the value (or utility) of something changes as you get more of it. For example, the first bite of ice cream is great. The third is okay. By the twentieth bite, you may really not want any more at all: so 20 bites of ice cream is not 20 times the value of one bite! If you are forced to each too much ice cream, the utility can actually drop below zero; you really don’t want any more.8 (This has been tested empirically using ice cream, among other things, and you can try it yourself to see this effect [Mackenzie 2002].)
因此，获得奖励的感觉很棒——但第二次获得相同奖励时，感觉就没那么好了，第三次几乎感觉不到是奖励。我们人类不会客观地评价奖励，而是根据我们已经得到的奖励，从相对价值的角度来看待奖励。在游戏中，如果玩家觉得自己不再获得有意义的奖励，他们的参与度就会受到影响，他们就会退出图 4.11所示的流程通道的“无聊底部” 。因此，奖励往往会随着时间的推移而变得更大，这意味着它们的增长率（无论是黄金、经验、名望还是其他东西）也会随着时间的推移而上升。随着资源给予率随着时间的推移而增加，这会导致奖励呈指数增长。
So being rewarded feels great—but the second time you get the same reward, it doesn’t feel as good, and the third time it barely feels like a reward at all. We humans don’t evaluate a reward objectively but see it in terms of its relative value, based on what we have already received. In a game, if a player feels that they are no longer being meaningfully rewarded, their engagement will suffer, and they will drop out of the “boring bottom” of the flow channel shown in Figure 4.11. As a result, rewards tend to get bigger over time, meaning that their rate of increase (again, whether in gold, experience, fame, or something else) also goes up over time. This results in an exponentially increasing curve for rewards as the rate of resources given increases over time.
由于增长率会随时间推移而上升，随着玩家的进步，更多的资源被投入到游戏中。除非游戏中的资源消耗也增加以匹配资源，否则这会导致资源供应增加，从而导致通货膨胀。
Because the rate of increase goes up over time, as the player progresses, more resources are pumping into the game. Unless the in-game resource sinks also increase to match the sources, this results in an increase in resource supply and thus in inflation.
许多游戏意识到习惯会破坏玩家参与度，因此努力通过使用各种方法来避免这种情况，其中包括：
Realizing how habituation can ruin engagement, many games work hard to avoid it by using a variety of methods, including the following:
限制资源来源：许多游戏通过减少资源来源来制造资源恐慌——减少资源来源的数量、降低每个资源来源的生产速度，或者增加获取资源的成本或难度。例如，在角色扮演游戏中，获取更好武器的难度、获取具有非线性收益的盔甲套装的最后一件的难度，甚至获取下一级别所需的经验值（其中曲线是非线性的）。（您将在第 9 章“游戏平衡方法”和第 10 章中了解有关此内容的更多信息。）
Limiting sources: Many games make resources scare by decreasing their sources—reducing the number of sources, decreasing the rate at which the resources are produced at each source, or increasing the cost or difficulty of obtaining the resources. This happens in role-playing games, for example, in the difficulty of obtaining a better weapon, obtaining the last piece of a set of armor that has nonlinear benefits as a set, or even obtaining the experience points needed for the next level, where the curve for this is nonlinear. (You’ll learn more about this in Chapter 9, “Game Balance Methods,” and Chapter 10.)
限制库存：《魔兽世界》和《暗黑破坏神》系列等游戏对玩家可以保留的库存数量设置了上限，这在“我携带的东西”和“我剩余的空间”之间创造了一种平衡生态，如前所述。限制玩家可以携带的东西可以推迟（但不会消除）通货膨胀，同时也为玩家提供了另一条发展路径，因为他会发现如何增加他可以携带的东西的数量。
Limiting stock: Games like World of Warcraft and those in the Diablo series put a cap on the inventory stock a player can keep, which creates a balancing ecology between “things I’m carrying” and “space I have left,” as described earlier. Limiting how much the player can carry pushes off (but does not eliminate) inflation and also gives the player another progression path as he discovers how to increase the amount he can carry.
增加资源流出：许多游戏都会增加资源物品从游戏中流出的数量。例如，在《塞尔达传说：荒野之息》中（和许多其他游戏一样），武器可能会损坏，这意味着它们不再有用，并会离开游戏。因此，玩家几乎从不认为一把好剑毫无价值（它保留了边际效用），因为你知道当其他剑损坏时，你可能需要它。
Increasing sinks: Many games increase the outflow of resource items from the game. For example, in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (as in many other games), weapons can be broken, meaning they are no longer useful and leave the game. As a result, the player almost never considers a good sword to be worthless (it retains its marginal utility) because you know you may need it when others break.
通货膨胀和随之而来的习惯化是常见情况，很难完全避免。这些情况也凸显了为什么采用系统性的游戏设计方法（包括游戏中不同类型的等级系统）有助于保持玩家参与度。依赖内容和进度的游戏最终会走向终结。添加的内容变得越来越古怪，以支持挑战和奖励的指数级进度曲线，并且创建和维护的成本也越来越高。更多地依赖具有强大生态平衡组件的系统的游戏（例如，前面描述的“领域与领域”战斗）能够持续更长时间，而对玩家参与度没有明确的限制。
Inflation and accompanying habituation are common conditions, and they are difficult to avoid entirely. These conditions also highlights why taking a systemic approach to game design—including different kinds of hierarchical systems in a game—helps maintain player engagement. Games that depend on content and progression eventually come to an end. Added content becomes more and outlandish to support the exponential progression curves of challenge and reward, and it also becomes increasingly expensive to create and maintain. Games that rely more on systems that have a strong ecological, balancing component (for example, the “Realm vs. Realm” combat described earlier) are able to go on much longer with no clear limit on the player’s engagement.
战斗系统
战斗系统通常是生态系统，如前所述：两个或多个对手通过行动来平衡彼此，并最终将对方从游戏中淘汰。在时间尺度和交互性方面，单个战斗系统通常侧重于动作/反馈和短期认知交互。因此，战斗可能是游戏核心循环的重要组成部分，但它通常伴随着其他强化循环（尤其是进度系统），以提供长期目标并抵消战斗系统固有的平衡性质。请注意，有些游戏（尤其是手机游戏）包含玩家几乎无需做出任何决定的战斗系统。虽然这些游戏以周围的强化循环作为让玩家继续玩下去的核心循环，但战斗中快速动作/反馈交互性的丧失几乎不可避免地会降低玩家的参与度，从而缩短游戏时间。即使拥有强大的核心循环，引人注目的即时决策和交互性对于制作成功的游戏仍然至关重要。
Combat systems are typically ecologies, as described earlier: two or more opponents seek by their actions to balance each other and ultimately eliminate the other(s) from the game. In terms of time scale and interactivity, individual combat systems typically focus on action/feedback and short-term cognitive interactions. As a result, combat may be a significant part of the core loop of a game, but it is usually accompanied by other reinforcing loops—progression systems in particular—to provide longer-term goals and offset the inherent balancing nature of the combat system. Note that some games (especially mobile games) include combat systems in which the player has few if any decisions to make. While these games have the surrounding reinforcement loop as their core loop that keeps the player playing, the loss of the fast action/feedback interactivity in combat almost inevitably reduces the player’s engagement and thus longevity in the game. Even with a strong core loop, compelling moment-to-moment decisions and interactivity remain vital to making a successful game.
许多游戏将战斗作为与其他系统交互的主要平衡系统。例如，纸牌游戏《星际王国》中每个玩家的核心循环都专注于引擎构建。玩家之间的战斗是每个玩家减缓或平衡对手进度的一种方式。这提高了引擎构建循环中有效决策的必要性，因为玩家必须选择建造船只以获得即时收益或长期投资，因为他们知道对手肯定会对玩家做出的任何选择提出挑战。
Many games use combat as a primary balancing system that interacts with other systems. For example, the card game Star Realms has each player’s individual core loop focused on engine building. Combat occurs between players as a way for each player to slow or balance an opponent’s progress. This has the effect of heightening the need for effective decision making in the engine-building loop, as the player must choose to construct ships for immediate gain or long-term investment, knowing that the opponent will certainly provide a challenge to whatever choice the player makes.
建筑系统
许多游戏都包含各种“建造”系统，玩家可以在此系统中为世界添加比以前更多的东西。这包括制作、耕种、繁殖以及建造和修改车辆、建筑物或（如角色扮演游戏）个人角色。这些系统通常涉及引擎和经济（包括长生产链），具体取决于重点是通过基于引擎的系统将过去的收益再投资于未来的增长（许多卡牌游戏都是以此作为其核心循环）还是交换资源以获得价值。它们往往侧重于短期和长期的认知互动，尽管一些非常详细的建造系统也包括重要的动作/反馈组件。
Many games include various kinds of “building” systems, where the player can add more to the world than was there before. This includes crafting, farming, breeding, and constructing and modifying vehicles, buildings, or (as in the case of role-playing games) an individual character. These systems typically involve both engines and economies (including long production chains), depending on whether the emphasis is on reinvesting past gains for future increases via an engine-based system (as many deck-building games do as their core loop) or exchanging resources to gain value. They tend to focus on short-term and long-term cognitive interactivity, though some very detailed construction systems include significant action/feedback components as well.
建造系统通常是大型进程循环中的辅助子系统。在角色扮演游戏中，玩家会积累技能、武器、盔甲、世界知识，以及社交圈（队伍和公会成员），这些都是进程循环的一部分。同样，在策略游戏中，玩家会进行研究，建造新建筑，训练更强大的部队，以获得更大的名声和战利品——这是一系列嵌套良好的引擎和经济循环。
Construction systems are often supporting subsystems within a larger progression loop. In a role-playing game, the player builds up skills, weapons, armor, world knowledge, and often a social set (party and guild membership) as parts in a progression loop. Likewise, in strategy games, players pursue research to construct new buildings to train more powerful units to get greater fame and loot—a nicely nested series of engine and economic loops.
技能与技术系统
许多游戏都包含围绕发现新技能和新技术而建立的长期目标。这些目标为玩家提供了新能力（他们的角色、帝国等），并且通常是有限的强化循环引擎系统。通常，这些系统被组织成“树”，其中一项技能或技术会引出两到三项技能或技术，玩家可以在技能或技术空间中导航以创建自定义角色或文明。如前所述，玩家获得经验研究点数，然后将其投资于特定的新技能或技术以获得其能力。玩家很少能够将这些点数用于非投资行动，尽管这是游戏设计中值得探索的领域。
Many games include long-term goals built around discovering new skills and technologies. These provide new abilities for the player (their character, empire, and so on) and are typically limited reinforcing loop engine systems. Often these are organized as “trees,” where one skill or technology leads to two or three more, and the player navigates the skill or technology space to create a custom character or civilization. As discussed earlier, the player gains experience research points and then invests them in a particular new skill or technology to gain its abilities. Rarely does the player have the ability to use these points for a noninvesting action, though this is an area for exploration in game design.
社会和政治制度
在具有社交玩法的游戏中，与其他人（尤其是其他人类玩家，但有时也包括非玩家角色）互动，也可能有机会进行社交或政治游戏系统。这些系统是社会生态系统；它与狼和鹿之间的谈判以及不同人类派系之间的谈判没有太大区别。9大多数派系、竞争帮派、政党等形成一个生态系统，每个派系都通过争取自己的强化支配地位来平衡其他派系。互动是长期的和社会性的，专注于这些类型和时间尺度。与任何其他生态系统一样，如果任何“一方”的行动能够自我强化，并且有效地获胜，以无可匹敌的方式超越对手，那么系统就会崩溃，游戏玩法也将不复存在。
In games with social gameplay, interacting with others (especially other human players but sometimes also non-player characters), there may also be opportunities for systems of social or political play. These systems are social ecologies; it’s not a huge leap from the negotiations between wolves and deer and those between various human factions.9 Most cliques, competing gangs, political parties, and so on form an ecology, each balancing the other by striving for their own reinforcing dominance. The interactivity is long term and social, focusing on those types and time scales. As with any other ecology, if any “side” comes to a position where its actions are self-reinforcing and it has effectively won, outstripping its opponents in ways that can no longer be challenged, the system collapses, and there is no remaining gameplay.
定义系统的循环和目标
Defining a System’s Loops—And Goals
设计系统首先要确定系统的设计目标：系统在游戏中的作用是什么？要回答这个问题，你需要执行以下操作：
Designing a system starts with the design goals you have for the system: what purpose does the system have within your game? To answer this you need to do the following:
构建系统的循环形式来支持你想要创建的游戏玩法和玩家体验
Construct the system’s looping form to support the gameplay and player experience you want to create
有意识地、仔细地考虑你想通过在游戏中加入这个系统来实现哪些类型的玩家互动、目标和行为
Consciously and carefully consider the kinds of player interactions, goals, and behaviors you want to enable by including this system in your game
明确定义创建系统时需要使用的各个部分及其交互，以及系统中将与之交互的其他系统
Clearly define the parts and their interactions you have to work with to create your system and other systems in the game with which this one will interact
总体而言，任何系统的目标都可以用较高和较低的层次来表达：首先，从更高层次的系统的角度来考虑目标。其中最高的系统层次是玩家的体验，它源于游戏+玩家系统。这包括玩家与游戏互动的方式（快或慢、感知、认知、情感或社交），以及他们如何构建自己的心理模型以与系统游戏模型相对应。
Overall, the goals for any system can be expressed in terms of higher and lower hierarchical levels: First, consider goals in terms of the higher-level system that this one is a part of. The highest systemic level of this is the player’s experience, which arises out of the game+player system. This includes the ways the player interacts with the game (fast or slow, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, or social), and the way they build their mental model to correspond with the systemic game model.
从这里我们进入层次化的子系统。你可能正在构建一个存在于另一个更高级别系统内的系统，例如图 7.6和7.7中所示的系统层次结构。在这种情况下，你需要在它的背景中看待你正在设计的系统——这个系统正在加强或平衡的更大的系统，以及它如何与其他同级系统（那些属于更高级别系统的其他部分）交互。
From there we descend into hierarchical subsystems. You may be building a system that exists within another higher-level system, such as the hierarchy of systems shown in Figures 7.6 and 7.7. In this case, you need to look at the system you’re designing in its context—the larger system that this one is reinforcing or balancing and how it interacts with other peer-level systems (those that are other parts in the higher-level system).
定义循环结构
Defining the Looping Structure
对于你正在设计的系统，你需要考虑它需要什么样的循环结构：它是一个简单的强化或平衡循环，一个引擎，一个经济，一个生态，还是这些的某种混合？它里面是否也有子系统？勾勒出主要循环（参见本章后面“工具”一节中的讨论）将帮助你快速了解系统的整体动态行为以及它如何支持玩家的体验，以及相互作用以形成循环的子系统和/或资源。勾勒出系统的循环还有助于你明确系统在游戏中的位置以及为什么需要它。你可能需要多次这样做，定义和重新定义系统的结构和关系。这个迭代过程将帮助你更准确地定义系统和整体玩家体验，也有助于你开始定义成为系统组成部分的游戏对象。
For the system you’re designing, you need to consider what kind of looping structure it needs to have: is it a simple reinforcing or balancing loop, an engine, an economy, an ecology, or some hybrid of these? Does it also have subsystems within it? Sketching out the primary loops (see the discussion in the section “Tools,” later in this chapter) will help you gain a quick understanding of the overall dynamic behavior of the system and how it supports the player’s experience, as well as the subsystems and/or resources that interact to form the loop. Sketching the system’s loops will also help you clarify where the system fits in the game and why it’s needed. You will likely need to do this multiple times, defining and redefining the systems’ structures and relationships. This iterative process will help you define the systems and the overall player experience more precisely, and it will also help you begin to define the game objects that become the parts of your system.
当你这样做时，你可能会发现你设计的系统其实根本不需要——它对玩家的体验几乎没有什么帮助。重要的是不要留下与游戏其他部分不相符的系统。例如，在一款关于社交关系的游戏中，制作系统可能不合适。不要因为喜欢它或为它付出了艰辛的努力而将它保留在游戏中。把它放在一边，要么你以后会在游戏中为它找到一个位置，要么你会找到在另一个游戏中使用它的方法。
As you do this, you may find that a system you’re designing really isn’t needed after all—that it adds little to the player’s experience. It’s important that you not leave in a system that doesn’t fit with the rest of the game. For example, a crafting system in a game about social relationships may be out of place. Don’t keep it in the game just because you like it or worked hard on it. Set it aside, and either you’ll find a place for it in the game later on, or you’ll find a way to use it in another game.
除了循环结构之外，你还必须考虑系统内的各个部分及其交互如何支持你的系统游戏目标。这将导致你面对游戏平衡问题以及系统是否能让玩家做出有意义的决定。（第 8 章、第 9 章和第10章介绍了设计部件和平衡部件的具体内容。）
In addition to the looping structures, you have to consider how the parts within the system, along with their interactions, support your gameplay goals for the system. This will lead you to confront issues of game balance and whether the system enables the player to make meaningful decisions. (The specifics of designing parts and balancing them are covered in Chapters 8, 9, and 10.)
通过同时在所有这些层面上工作——部分、循环和整体（或者至少将你的注意力从一个层面转移到另一个层面；参考图5.2），你可以更清楚地表达你的设计目标不是作为静态内容，而是作为一组动态机器，为玩家创造一个可以行动的空间。
By working at all these levels—parts, loops, and the whole—at the same time (or at least shifting your focus back and forth from one to another; refer to Figure 5.2), you can more clearly articulate your design goals not as static content, but as a set of dynamic machines that create the space within which the player can act.
连接玩家体验和系统设计
Linking the Player Experience and System Design
在设计任何游戏系统时，你都需要考虑它如何融入并支持玩家体验。例如，在战斗系统中，你应该考虑你想要的游戏玩法是一场大规模的军队对军队的战斗，玩家可以在几分钟内看到他们对不同单位组下达的命令的效果，还是一场更激烈的个人战斗体验，玩家可以在亚秒内决定每一个细微的动作或动作组合。总的来说，这些都是战斗生态系统，但玩家与游戏的互动差别很大，创建系统和支持所需游戏体验所需的底层游戏部分也大不相同。根据玩家的互动和体验以及支持这些目标所需的部分、属性和行为来定义系统的目标将有助于你明确系统本身的结构。
In designing any game system, you need to think about how it fits into and supports the player experience. For example, in the case of a combat system, you should consider whether the gameplay you want is a grand sweeping army-to-army combat where the player sees the effects of their orders to different groups of units unfold over minutes or a more intense personal combat experience where the player determines every subtle movement or combination of moves on a subsecond basis. Each of these is overall a combat-ecology system, but the interactions the player has with the game differ greatly, as do the underlying game parts necessary to create the system and support the desired gameplay experience. Defining the goals for the system in terms of the player’s interactions and experience, as well as the parts, attributes, and behaviors needed to support those will help you clarify the structure of the system itself.
同样，如果你正在设计一个进程系统，那么自然而然的考虑就是你应该让玩家以多快的速度前进。你如何在早期的快速互动循环中让玩家感受到早期掌握游戏的乐趣，从而建立参与度，同时继续长期吸引他们的兴趣？如果玩家在游戏早期没有得到积极的反馈，他们将无法构建他们的心理模型，也不会被游戏吸引。在游戏开始大约一分钟后的核心循环中创造一个积极的反馈“成功体验”（“你做到了！”）是一种帮助玩家开始构建他们的模型并沉迷于游戏的方法。这种积极的反馈很重要，但正如前面所讨论的，如果你一直以同样的速度给予同样的奖励，就会产生享乐疲劳。然而，如果玩家得到的奖励太多，进度太快，游戏很快就会结束——或者变得无聊。另一方面，如果玩家的进度太慢，或者进程本身不是内在的奖励，那么游戏就变成了一种“重复” 10，并且玩家只有相信稍后有足够的奖励等着他们才会坚持下去；否则，他们会因为没有吸引力而放弃游戏。
Similarly, if you are designing a progression system, a natural consideration is how fast you should allow the player to progress. How can you give a player the feeling of early mastery in a fast interaction loop early on so you can build engagement but also continue to hold their interest over the long term? If the player has no positive feedback early in the game, they will be unable to construct their mental model and won’t be engaged by the game. Creating a positive feedback “success experience” (“you did it!”) in a core loop that occurs in the first minute or so of the game is a way to help the player begin building their model and become hooked by the game. Such positive feedback is important, but as discussed earlier, hedonic fatigue sets in if you keep giving the same rewards at the same rate. However, if the player is rewarded too much and progresses too fast, the game will be over—or become boring—quickly. On the other hand, if a player progresses too slowly, or if the progression itself is not intrinsically rewarding, then the game becomes a “grind,”10 and the player persists only if they believe there is a sufficient reward waiting for them later; otherwise, they will simply drop the game as not being engaging.
游戏系统设计工具
Tools for Designing Game Systems
设计游戏系统不需要任何特殊工具。大量工作可以用纸、白板和其他简单工具完成。这项工作是高度迭代的；您将一遍又一遍地勾勒出循环结构，以更准确地描绘您想要的系统类型。尝试绘制系统循环图这一行为可以帮助您集中精力并理清思路，并向您展示它作为游戏的一部分是如何运作的。在某个时候，随着这些结构和图表开始固化，您需要开始制作原型，以查看您的设计是否真正有效并实现您为它们设定的目标。
Designing game systems doesn’t require any exotic tools. A great deal of work can be done with paper, whiteboards, and other simple tools. This work is highly iterative; you will end up sketching out looping structures over and over again to more accurately depict the kind of systems you want. Just the act of trying to draw out a looping diagram for a system helps you focus and clarify your thoughts on it and shows you how it works as part of the game. At some point, as these structures and diagrams begin to solidify, you need to move to making prototypes to see if your designs actually work and fulfill the goals you set for them.
白板和快速原型制作工具
Whiteboards and Fast Prototyping Tools
游戏设计师最常用的工具之一是白板。此工具完全是“模拟”的（即不涉及电子设备），它允许您和您的同事用不同的颜色反复绘制、擦除和重绘。您可能会花很多时间坐在白板前，构思出您想要代表游戏玩法的系统图。
One of the most common tools for game designers is the whiteboard. This tool is completely “analog” (that is, it involves no electronics), and it allows you and those working with you to draw, erase, and redraw over and over in different colors. You can expect to spend a lot of time in front of whiteboards, puzzling out the systems diagrams you want to represent your gameplay.
截至撰写本文时，已有几种数字工具可帮助您完成定义系统的这一阶段。Loopy是 Nicky Case (2017) 开发的一款免费在线工具，可让您轻松绘制强化循环和平衡循环。虽然此工具的功能有限，但它能让您创建多种类型的循环图，且外观简洁、赏心悦目，然后查看它们的实际效果。前面提到过，Joris Dormans 开发的Machinations是一个类似且更为详细的工具。此工具提供了一套全面的工具，可用于创建可运行的功能性循环图，甚至完整的游戏（尽管没有任何类似游戏的演示，只有原始系统）。不幸的是，这个工具也在迅速老化，而且似乎没有得到积极维护。还有其他工具，其中许多用于模拟而非游戏设计工作，例如NetLogo（Wilensky 1999）。
There are a few digital tools as of this writing that can help with this stage of defining your systems. Loopy, a free online tool by Nicky Case (2017), allows you to easily draw reinforcing and balancing loops. While the functionality of this tool is limited, it enables you to create many kinds of looping diagrams with a clean and pleasing aesthetic and then to see them in action. A similar and far more detailed tool is Joris Dormans’ Machinations, mentioned earlier. This tool provides a comprehensive toolset for creating working, functional looping diagrams and even full games (albeit without any game-like presentation—just the raw systems). Unfortunately, this tool is also aging quickly and appears to not be actively maintained. There are other tools, as well, including many intended for simulation rather than game design work, such as NetLogo (Wilensky 1999).
除了这些用于系统或模拟创建的工具外，还有许多其他编程环境可用于快速原型设计。许多设计师喜欢使用 JavaScript、Python、以及像Unity这样的全功能游戏开发工具，用于创建快速、丑陋（重点不在于艺术）的原型来测试他们的系统设计。使用其中任何一个的关键是将它们用作达到目的的手段：您想要测试您的想法，从概念循环系统图转移到可以尽快检查、测试和改进的快速工作原型。
Beyond these tools for system or simulation creation, there are many other programming environments that can be used for rapid prototyping. Many designers like to use JavaScript, Python, and full game-development tools like Unity to create fast, ugly (the emphasis is not on art) prototypes to test their system designs. The key to using any of these is to use them as a means to an end: you want to test your ideas, moving from your conceptual looping system diagrams to fast working prototypes that you can examine, test, and refine as quickly as possible.
挑战
这些工具面临的两个主要挑战是，一方面，您可以制作出多么复杂或完整的交互式系统；另一方面，学习和使用它们需要多少时间。
Two major challenge with any of these tools are how complex or complete you can make an interactive system on one hand and the time it takes to learn and use them on the other.
白板使用起来很方便，你可以在上面绘制任何你喜欢的系统。另一方面，你必须用自己的大脑作为计算机来让它栩栩如生——而众所周知，人类在准确理解动态系统的行为时很容易犯错。与Loopy相比， Machinations包含更详细的运算符，包括用户输入运算符，但虽然两者都相对容易学习和使用，但都不允许创建包含子系统的系统（Loopy根本不允许创建子系统， Machinations则不允许创建任何模块化、可用形式）。NetLogo功能更先进，可用于为简单游戏创建完整的游戏系统，但学习曲线更长，并且在迭代原型设计方面不如简单的工具那么快。
A whiteboard is easy to use, and you can draw any system you like on it. On the other hand, you have to use your own brain as the computer to make it come to life—and humans are notoriously fallible when it comes to maintaining an accurate understanding of a dynamic system’s behavior. Machinations includes more detailed operators, including user input ones, than does Loopy, but while both are relatively easy to learn and use, neither allows the creation of systems containing subsystems (at all in Loopy’s case, and in any modular, usable form with Machinations). NetLogo is more advanced in its capabilities and can be used to create full game systems for simple games, but it has a longer learning curve and is not as rapid in iterative prototyping as the simpler tools.
就表达深度和原型设计速度而言，此开发系统或基于通用语言的开发系统是否最佳取决于您的设计风格以及您学习该语言或工具的意愿。归根结底，没有最好的解决方案；正如人们常说的那样，使用您认为当时最适合该工作的工具。
Whether this or a general language-based development system is best in terms of depth of expressivity and speed of prototyping depends on your design style and how willing you are to learn the language or tool. Ultimately, there is no one best solution; as has often been said, use what you consider to be the right tool for the job at the time.
电子表格
Spreadsheets
电子表格是任何系统设计过程的支柱。在整个游戏行业中，Microsoft Excel是最受欢迎的，因为它历史悠久且功能众多，但其他电子表格，如Google Docs Spreadsheet和Apache OpenOffice，也有自己的追随者。无论如何，您需要非常熟悉使用电子表格来输入、可视化和比较游戏数据，这些数据定义了最低级系统的各个部分并使您的循环系统正常运行。（我们将在第 8 章和第10 章中讨论如何使用电子表格来实现这一点。）
A mainstay of any system design process is the electronic spreadsheet. Across the games industry, Microsoft Excel is the most popular, given its long history and many capabilities, but others, such as Google Docs Spreadsheet and Apache OpenOffice, have their own followings as well. In any case, you will need to be intimately familiar with using spreadsheets to enter, visualize, and compare the game data that define your lowest-level systems’ parts and make your looping systems function. (We discuss how spreadsheets are used to this end in Chapters 8 and 10.)
记录您的系统设计
Documenting Your System Designs
与游戏概念文档一样，在设计游戏系统时，以一种能够与他人良好沟通并在开发过程中保持可理解的形式来表达它们至关重要。任何参与您游戏的人（包括您，从您开始的几个月后）都需要了解以下内容：
As with the game concept documents, it’s vital when designing game systems to articulate them in a form that communicates well to others and that remains comprehensible to you during development. Anyone who works on your game (including you, months from when you start) needs to understand the following:
为什么系统设计成这样
Why the systems are designed as they are
系统如何支持游戏概念和所需的玩家体验
How the systems support the game concept and the desired player experience
系统如何通过游戏对象作为系统的一部分来体现
How the systems are embodied by the game’s objects as the system parts
系统设计文档
System Design Documents
系统设计的主要文档是对其目标和工作原理的解释性描述。随着设计的完善和稳定，技术文档主要用于编程方面——实际上是在游戏中实现系统。
The primary documentation for a system’s design is an explanatory description of its goals and how it works. As the design is refined and becomes more settled, technical documentation is used primarily on the programming side—actually implementing the system in the game.
和任何其他游戏设计文档一样，随着设计进展，及时更新此类交付成果11非常重要。这些文档不是一次性编写的文档，而是在系统设计迭代过程中应经常更新和查阅的文档。文档通常是令人畏惧或避免的，但如果没有记录游戏，则会导致您在未来做出错误的决定，因为您无法再追溯导致您做出特定设计决策的思路。系统设计尤其如此，因为通常有一些微妙的设计决策没有明显的效果。文档的部分工作就是使这些决策清晰，以免丢失系统的本质。
As with any other game design documentation, it is important to stay up-to-date on deliverables11 like this as your design progresses. These are not write-once-and-forget documents but ones that should be updated and consulted often as you iterate on the system’s design. Documentation is often dreaded or avoided, but failing to document a game can lead to making poor decisions in the future when you can no longer trace the thread of thinking that led you to a particular set of design decisions. This is especially true with system design, as there are often subtle design decisions that do not have obvious effects. Part of the job of documentation is to make these clear so that the essence of the system is not lost.
系统设计文档
游戏系统的设计文档应该包括以下内容：
The design document for a game system should include the following:
系统名称和高级描述。
The system name and a high-level description.
该系统的目标，以玩家体验的形式表达：该系统如何帮助创造游戏玩法？这种解释通常是定性的，侧重于系统的体验性。使用与玩家与该系统交互时的感受相关的词语是完全合适的。
The goals for this system, expressed in terms of the player’s experience: how does this system help create the gameplay? This explanation is often qualitative and focused on the experiential nature of the system. Using words related to how the player feels when interacting with this system is entirely appropriate.
系统的图形描述，显示重要的子系统和内部部件及行为。这些通常采用本书中使用的循环图的形式。高级图可能看起来很像图 7.11。
A graphical depiction of the system, showing important subsystems and internal parts and behaviors. These typically take the form of the kinds of looping diagrams used throughout this book. A high-level diagram might look a lot like Figure 7.11.
此系统启用或要求的任何玩家互动。
Any player interactions enabled or required by this system.
子系统、对等系统以及该系统所在系统（其中最高级别是游戏+玩家系统）的描述列表（或理想情况下是实时链接）。
A list of (or, ideally, live links to) the descriptions of subsystems, peer systems, and the system within which this one exists (the highest level of them being the game+player system).
充分理解系统的目的及其实施所需的任何其他细节。
Any other details needed to fully understand the purpose of the system and its implementation.
每个系统都应该有自己的简要设计文档，其中包含这些要点。不要忽视这些文档，同样重要的是使其尽可能清晰和简洁。为每个系统创建一个单独的文档，而不是一个庞大的文档。独立但有链接的文档（网页、存储在 Google Docs 中的文档、wiki 条目等）通常是理想的选择，因为它们使您能够根据需要编辑每个设计文档，而不必涉足不可避免地很快就会过时的庞大“设计圣经”。
Each system should have its own brief design document that incorporates these points. Just as it is important not to neglect this documentation, it is also important to make it as clear and brief as possible. Create a separate document for each system, not one huge document. Separate but linked documents (web pages, documents stored at Google Docs, wiki entries, and so on) are often ideal for this, as they enable you to edit each design document as needed without having to wade into a huge “design bible” that inevitably becomes out of date quickly.
系统技术设计文件
除了创建系统设计文档外，您还需要一份技术性更强的文档，该文档更侧重于系统如何实现而不是为什么实现。这两个文档应该保持步调一致，但以这种方式将它们分开可以让设计师专注于玩家的体验和感受，而那些更关注实现的人可以直接了解如何实现它。简而言之，设计文档主要面向游戏设计师，而技术设计文档主要面向游戏程序员。这两个文档并非总是必要的，但即使设计师和程序员是同一个人，将它们分开也是有用的，因为他们对同一系统提供了两个互补但不同的观点。
Along with creating a system design document, you need a more technical document that focuses more on how the system is to be implemented than why. These two documents should remain in step, but separating them this way allows the designers to focus on things like the player’s experience and feelings while those more focused on the implementation can get right to how it is to be accomplished. In short, the design document is mainly for game designers, and the technical design document is mainly for game programmers. These two documents aren’t always necessary, but it can be useful to separate them even if the same person is the designer and the programmer, as they provide two complementary but distinct points of view on the same system.
技术文档包含系统属性和行为的具体、可实施的描述，即其各部分及其交互方式的代码定义。随着设计的进展和逐渐稳定，技术设计文档包括按类型（字符串、整数等）对属性进行特定于实施的定义、每种属性的有效范围、行为如何改变它们以产生设计文档中描述的效果的公式，以及测试和结果的描述，以确保系统按预期运行。它可能包括数据文件（电子表格或类似文件）的格式描述和链接，并且它可能包括软件架构元素（如类描述），具体取决于所需的具体程度。（大型团队和长期项目通常需要更多。）
The technical document contains specific, implementable descriptions of the system’s attributes and behaviors—that is, the code-like definitions for its parts and how they interact. As the design progresses and becomes more settled, the technical design document includes implementation-specific definitions for attributes by type (string, integer, and so on), valid ranges for each, formulas for how behaviors alter them to produce the effects described in the design document, and descriptions of tests and results to ensure that the system is working as expected. It likely includes format descriptions of and links to data files (spreadsheets or similar), and it may include software architectural elements such as class descriptions, depending on the level of specificity needed. (More is generally required on large teams and long-term projects.)
模型和原型
Mockups and Prototypes
除了前面几节中描述的文档之外（通常也是其中的一部分），设计的模型和原型有助于传达系统的用途和行为。它们有助于确保您和其他人彻底了解系统的用途、设计和功能。它们提供了系统如何工作以及系统旨在创建或支持哪种玩家体验所需的示例。但请注意，它们并未提供系统在技术层面应如何实现的示例；为了使原型工作，可能会采取许多捷径，但这些捷径并不适合最终的游戏实现。
In addition to—and often as part of—the documents described in the preceding sections, mockups and prototypes of your design help communicate the purpose and behavior of the system. They help ensure that you and others thoroughly understand your system’s purpose, design, and function. They provide needed examples of how the system works and the kind of player experience it is designed to create or support. Note, however, that they do not provide examples of how the system should be implemented at a technical level; many shortcuts may be taken to get a prototype to work and would not be appropriate in the final game implementation.
模型是带有支持文本的非功能性图表。它们可能包括面向玩家的绘图或故事板和/或系统工作原理的叙述性描述（尽管图表越多文字越少越好！）。例如，战斗系统的模型包括对玩家所做选择的描述（如用户界面所示），以及战斗如何进行的图表/叙述性描述。这显示了玩家的选择和与系统内部功能的交互的影响。
Mockups are nonfunctional diagrams with supporting text. They may include player-facing drawings or storyboards and/or narrative descriptions (though more diagrams and less text is better!) of how the system works. For example, a mockup of a combat system includes a depiction of the choices the player has, as shown in the user interface, as well as a diagrammatic/narrative description of how a combat proceeds. This shows the effects of the player’s choices and interactions with the system’s internal functioning.
虽然模型不具备功能性，但数字游戏的原型具有一些实际的工作功能。原型可以快速组装，使系统描述比模型更生动，尽管这种功能可能非常有限，并且可能会遗漏与系统功能无关的重要功能。它们也不旨在代表最终的艺术，并且经常使用尽可能简单的替代艺术；您希望将重点放在原型系统上，而不是为游戏创建和改进艺术。因此，原型通常被描述为快速和丑陋——在这种情况下，这些都是积极的品质。
Whereas mockups are nonfunctional, prototypes for digital games have some actual working functionality. Prototypes are put together quickly to bring more life to the system description than a mockup, though this functionality may be highly limited and is likely to leave out important features that are not related to the system’s function. They are also not meant to be indicative of final art and often use stand-in art that is as simple as possible; you want to keep the focus on the system being prototyped, not creating and refining art for the game. As a result, prototypes are often described as being fast and ugly—and in this case, these are positive qualities.
如上所述，原型可以用任何工具制作，从电子表格到完整的编程环境。原型应被视为禁止将任何内容（除创意外）转移到最终可运行的游戏：保持原型快速、高度迭代且不美观，然后在完全重写游戏生产代码时将从中学到的经验转移到游戏生产代码中。复制和粘贴“一点点”系统代码的诱惑可能很强烈，但与屈服于这种诱惑相比，不这样做可以节省更多时间和精力。
A prototype can be made in any tool, as described above, from a spreadsheet to a full programming environment. Prototypes should be considered off-limits for any transfer (other than of ideas) to a final working game: keep them fast, highly iterative, and ugly and then transfer the lessons you learned from them to the game’s production code when you rewrite it completely. The temptation to copy and paste “just a little” of the system’s code can be strong, but you will save yourself far more time and grief by not doing so than you will by giving in to this temptation.
在文档中引用可运行的系统原型有助于您更确定您的设计符合系统目标，并使系统的功能（而不是结构）更容易理解。这并不意味着您需要为游戏中的每个系统制作原型，但系统越重要（例如构成游戏核心循环的系统），您就越想在快速且廉价的情况下创建原型。在游戏制作过程中发现核心循环或某些主要系统无法正常工作，会造成比早期花时间迭代原型更大、更昂贵的延迟。
Having a working system prototype referenced in your documentation helps you be more certain that your design meets the system’s goals and makes the system’s function (rather than its structure) more easily understood. This doesn’t mean you need to prototype every system in the game, but the more important the systems—those that make up the game’s core loops, for example—the more you want to create prototypes while it’s still fast an inexpensive to do so. Discovering later during production of the game that the core loop or some major system doesn’t work creates far larger and more expensive delays than does taking the time to iterate on prototypes early on.
More details on effective prototyping practices can be found in Chapter 12.
关于游戏循环需要考虑的问题
Questions to Consider About Your Game Loops
正如您对游戏概念和玩家整体体验的描述一样，在开发任何游戏系统时，在审查其设计时，有一些有用的问题需要评估。以下是其中一些：
As with your description of the game’s concept and the whole of the player’s experience, there are useful questions to evaluate when reviewing the design of any game system as you develop it. The following are some of them:
系统的目的是否明确，尤其是对设计者以外的其他人（首先是你的团队成员，然后是玩家）来说？请注意，这需要一个工作原型和游戏测试，如第 12 章所述。
Is the system’s purpose clear, especially to other people besides those who designed it (those on your team first and then players)? Note that this requires a working prototype and playtesting, as discussed in Chapter 12.
系统的内部资源、货币和/或子系统是否清晰且易于理解？
Are the system’s internal resources, currencies, and/or subsystems apparent and well understood?
该系统在整个游戏中的位置是否清晰？它是另一个更高级别系统的一部分吗？它在那个更高级别的系统中是否有同等的子系统？它是否构成了游戏中玩家的核心循环之一？
Is it clear where this system lives within the entire game? Is it a part in another higher-level system? Does it have peer subsystems within that higher-level system? Is it what forms one of the player’s core loops in the game?
系统本身是否有一个易于定义的主循环？系统内部各部分（无论是原子部分还是子系统）之间是否有足够的交互和反馈？系统？这个循环是通过加强或平衡其中的资源来支持游戏体验吗？
Does the system have a readily definable primary loop of its own? Is there sufficient interaction and feedback between parts (whether atomic or subsystems) within the system? Does this loop act by reinforcing or balancing the resources within it to support the gameplay experience?
系统是否能够适应内部或外部变化？您是否了解（并且能够预测）系统在什么情况下会变得脆弱并发生故障？系统中是否有任何部分可以覆盖所有其他部分的影响，或者是否存在瓶颈，如果一个部分或子系统发生故障，整个系统都会发生故障？
Is the system resilient to internal or external changes? Do you understand (and can you predict) in what situations the system will become brittle and fail? Are there any parts in the system that override the effects of all others, or are there choke points where if one part or subsystem fails, the entire system will fail?
系统是否提供甚至要求玩家做出有意义的决定？系统是否强迫玩家采取一种主导策略，或者不以适当的频率提供互动（基于互动类型以创造所需的游戏体验）？或者，系统是否要求玩家做出太多决定，以至于游戏可能会让人难以承受？
Does the system provide for and even require meaningful decisions by the player? Does the system force the player into one dominant strategy or not provide interactions at an appropriate frequency (based on the type of interactivity to create the desired gameplay experience)? Alternatively, does the system require so many decisions from the player that the game is likely to be overwhelming?
系统是否就其内部运作向玩家提供了足够的反馈，以便玩家能够建立起对其运作方式的有效心理模型？
Does the system provide sufficient feedback to the player about its internal operations that the player can build an effective mental model of how it works?
系统能否随着玩家对系统的理解不断加深而逐渐展开？也就是说，你能否呈现一个简单或高级版本，随着玩家了解系统的运作方式，不断增加细节（和互动）？
Can the system be progressively unfolded as the player’s understanding of it increases? That is, can you represent a simple or high-level version of it to which increasing detail (and interaction) is added as the player learns how the system operates?
该系统是否创造了新奇的游戏玩法？该系统中的部件和子系统是否结合起来创造出其中任何一个都没有的新效果，尤其是让玩家感到惊喜和愉悦的效果？
Does the system create emergent gameplay? Do the parts and subsystems within this system combine to create new effects that are not resident in any of them and, in particular, that surprise and delight the player?
您能否通过工作原型展示系统如何运行，而不是仅仅谈论它？
Can you show how the system functions via a working prototype rather than just talking about it?
该系统的设计目标和具体实施要素方面是否有充分且清晰的记录？
Is the system adequately and clearly documented, both in terms of its design goals and implementation-specific elements?
概括
Summary
循环系统是游戏和玩家体验的核心。作为一名系统游戏设计师，你需要能够识别、分析和创建游戏系统，并将其分解为组成循环。
Looping systems are the beating, cycling heart of a game and the player’s experience of it. As a systemic game designer, you need to be able to identify, analyze, and create game systems, breaking them down into their constituent loops.
系统地设计游戏不仅需要了解强化和平衡循环，还需要了解资源和货币如何在各部分之间流动以创建系统。从系统的角度看问题可以突出游戏设计中涉及的不同主要循环：游戏模型、玩家的心理模型、交互循环（包括最重要的核心循环）以及围绕所有这些的游戏设计师循环。这也使我们能够了解不同类型的游戏循环以及它们如何结合在一起以创建和支持玩家体验所需的游戏玩法。最后，理解和构建游戏系统还需要使用适当的工具并通过模型、原型和设计文档传达设计。
Designing games systemically requires a knowledge of not only reinforcing and balancing loops but how resources and currencies move around between parts to create the system. Seeing things from a systemic point of view highlights the different principal loops involved in game design: the game’s model, the player’s mental model, the interactive loop (including the all-important core loops) and the game designer’s loop surrounding all of these. This also allows us to look at different kinds of gameplay loops and how they combine together to create and support the gameplay desired for the player’s experience. Finally, understanding and constructing game systems also requires the use of appropriate tools and communication of the designs via mockups, prototypes, and design documents.
1.有些人可能不熟悉“stock”一词，因为“stock”在此上下文中用作资源的容器。这源自系统思维的早期，并一直延续到该领域。就我们的目的而言，可以想象一个养鱼的“存货池塘”或一个饲养动物的“存货场”，甚至可以想象一家商店货架上有多少存货。一些游戏开发者使用“pool”一词来表示这个概念。
1. The use of “stock” may be unfamiliar to some in this context as a container for a resource. This comes from the early days of systems thinking and has persisted in the field. For our purposes, think of a “stock pond” containing fish or a “stock yard” for animals, or even how much stock a store has on its shelves. Some game developers use the term “pool” for this concept.
2.在现实世界中，这并不是一个特别对生态负责的观点，但在创建游戏系统时，将源头或汇聚点之外的任何事物视为系统之外的东西，而不必担心任何更大的系统环境的动态，这是很有用的。
2. This is not a particularly ecologically responsible view in the real world, but in creating game systems, it can be useful to consider anything beyond the source or sink as being outside the system and to not worry about the dynamics of any larger system context.
3.或者，在某些情况下，核心方面可能是玩家花费最多时间的地方，或者设计师认为游戏的哪一部分提供最大的价值。核心循环作为一个艺术术语的使用仍然不完全一致。
3. Or, in some cases, the core aspect may be where the player spends most of their time, or which part of the game the designer believes provides the greatest value. The usage of core loop as a term of art still isn’t entirely consistent.
4.这种回路划分之所以如此普遍，可能是因为它与我们自己的生物遗传非常吻合：在人类和其他哺乳动物中，神经系统中反应快速的交感神经部分负责“战斗或逃跑”反应，而反应较慢、长期导向的副交感神经部分则控制所谓的“休息和消化”功能。前者帮助我们度过战斗，后者帮助我们维持和恢复身体系统的平衡。
4. This division of loops may be so pervasive because it fits well with our own biological heritage: in humans and other mammals, the fast reaction-oriented sympathetic part of the nervous system covers “fight or flight” reactions, while the slower, longer-term-oriented parasympathetic part of the nervous system controls what has been called “rest and digest” functions. The first carries us through battle; the second helps us maintain and restore the balance to our bodily systems.
5.从技术上讲，在出现整数溢出并且美元余额重置为零之前，游戏金额会上升到略高于 179 万亿亿美元，或约为 1.79×10 308美元。
5. Technically, the game goes up to just over $179 uncentillion, or about $1.79×10308 before there is an integer overflow and the dollar balance resets to zero.
6.这在现实世界中与用非系统性方法解决系统性问题的情况相似，如 1962 年《纽约时报》刊登的一篇关于越南过度使用杀虫剂的文章，文章开头写道“美国的 DDT 喷雾杀死了吃老鼠的猫，而老鼠又啃食了庄稼，而庄稼是反对中部低地共产党运动的主要支柱”（Bigart 1962）。
6. This has real-world parallels in nonsystemic solutions to systemic problems, such as the 1962 New York Times article about the overuse of insecticides in Vietnam that began “American DDT spray killed the cats that ate the rats that devoured the crops that were the main props against Communist agitation in the central lowlands” (Bigart 1962).
7 . 虽然很少见，但有些 RPG 游戏会允许玩家选择花费经验值而不是升级。例如，在《高级龙与地下城》 3.5 版中，玩家必须花费经验值才能施展某些法术或制作卷轴或魔法物品。我不知道有哪款 RPG 游戏允许玩家在困难行动中牺牲经验值或技能点，而不是将其投入到新等级或技能中（《Deadlands RPG》和《Torg》都很接近），但这可能为游戏增添一些有趣的元素。当你开始将技能增益系统视为引擎时，这种机制就会变得显而易见。
7. It’s rare, but a few RPGs have situations where you can choose to spend experience points rather than use them for leveling up. For example, in Advanced Dungeons and Dragons version 3.5, you have to spend XP to cast some spells or create scrolls or magic items. I don’t know of RPGs that allow you to sacrifice your experience points or skill points on a difficult action rather than investing them in a new level or skill (the Deadlands RPG comes close, as does Torg), but it could be an interesting twist to add to a game. It’s the kind of mechanism that becomes apparent when you start seeing the skill-gain system as an engine.
8.但请注意，边际效用也可以反过来：在通常所说的网络效应中，有些东西（积木、电话、联网计算机等）在某个点之前会慢慢获得更多效用，之后拥有更多东西会使每样东西都具有更大的价值，边际价值会迅速上升。这种情况会持续到饱和点，此时边际效用的增长再次放缓。
8. Note, however, that marginal utility can work the other way, too: in what are commonly known as network effects, some things—building blocks, telephones, networked computers, and so on—gain more utility slowly up to some point, after which having more of them makes each one have greater value, and the marginal value rises quickly. This continues up to a point of saturation, where the marginal utility increase slows again.
9.马文·西姆金 (Marvin Simkin) 于 1992 年写道：“民主就是两只狼和一只羊投票决定午餐吃什么。”他以“民主不是自由”作为开场白，并接着写道：“自由来自于对某些权利的承认，这些权利不得被剥夺，即使有 99% 的投票也不得剥夺。”
9. Marvin Simkin wrote in 1992 that “Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to eat for lunch.” He prefaced this with “Democracy is not freedom” and went on to write that “Freedom comes from the recognition of certain rights which may not be taken, not even by a 99% vote.”
10。 “刷任务”是许多角色扮演游戏和多人在线游戏的常见内容。玩家要忍受游戏为他们安排的毫无乐趣的任务或其他明确目标，这就是所谓的“不断升级的跑步机”。这是玩家获得更高等级和能力所付出的代价，这样他们才能继续在更高等级上刷更多的任务。虽然刷任务本身并不吸引人或有趣，但玩家和设计师都已接受它作为这些游戏的一部分。更系统地处理玩家体验和互动可能会产生不依赖于盲目重复刷任务而是依赖于系统掌握的设计。
10. The “grind” is a familiar staple of many RPGs and MMOs. Players endure largely joyless quests or other explicit goals that the game has laid out for them as part of what has been called the leveling treadmill. This is the price the player pays for gaining greater levels and abilities so they can go on to grind more quests at a higher level. While grinding gameplay is not in itself engaging or fun, both players and designers have come to accept it as part of the landscape of these games. A more systemic approach to the player’s experience and interactions may yield designs that do not rely on a mindless, repetitive grind but instead on systemic mastery.
11 .可交付成果是你向与你制作的游戏有利益关系的人提供的东西。当你在设计过程中早已忘记了自己的理由时，这很可能就是你。
11. A deliverable is anything that you’re providing to others who have a stake in the game you’re making. This may well be you in the future when you’ve long forgotten your own reasoning during the design process.
第八章
CHAPTER 8
定义游戏部分
DEFINING GAME PARTS
正如第 2 章“设计系统”中介绍的那样，系统由多个部分组成。在设计游戏时，定义组成游戏的各个部分是最详细的部分。
As introduced in Chapter 2, “Designing Systems,” systems are made of parts. In designing a game, defining the parts that make it up is where you encounter the most detail.
本章介绍了不同类型的部件，并详细介绍了如何为游戏定义和记录这些部件，以及它们的属性、值和行为。结果是一组已知量，它们可以创建循环系统和您想要的游戏整体体验。
This chapter introduces different kinds of parts and dives into the details of how you go about defining and documenting these parts for your game, along with their attributes, values, and behaviors. The result is a set of known quantities that create the looping systems and the overall experience you want for your game.
深入零件
Getting Down to Parts
第 2 章首先介绍了系统由各部分组成的概念。这些部分通过其行为在它们之间形成循环。在游戏术语中，部分是我们通过定义数字和逻辑函数来最终在游戏设计中真正具体化的地方，这些数字和逻辑函数决定了游戏的实际运作方式。
Chapter 2 first introduced the idea of systems being made up of parts. These parts create loops between them by their actions. In game terms, parts are where we finally get really specific in the game’s design by defining numbers and logical functions that determine how the game actually works.
如前几章所述，游戏中的各个部分通过循环交互协同工作以创建一个系统。从任何系统的角度来看，它的部分或全部部分可能都是子系统，如第 1 章“系统基础”、第 2 章和第 7章“创建游戏循环”所述。至少在游戏中 - 你无法定义延伸到质子和夸克的分层系统 - 在某个时候你必须创建构成游戏基础的部分。这些部分通常被称为简单部分或原子部分，因为它们是不可分割的；正是在这个层面上，我们抛弃了系统循环的概念，转而采用更基本的内部结构和行为。
As discussed in earlier chapters, the parts in a game work together to create a system by their looping interactions. From the point of view of any system, some or all of its parts may be subsystems, as described in Chapter 1, “Foundations of Systems,” Chapters 2, and 7, “Creating Game Loops.” In a game at least—where you do not have the luxury of defining hierarchical systems stretching all the way down to protons and quarks—at some point you have to create the parts that make up the foundation of the game. These parts are often called simple or atomic in that they are indivisible; it is at this level that we leave the notions of systemic looping behind in favor of more fundamental internal structures and behaviors.
这些部分构成了游戏的“名词”和“动词”。每个部分都有自己的内部属性，这些属性决定了其状态（“名词”），以及创建其功能的行为（“动词”）。属性具有值并定义资源，而行为则定义部分与其他部分的交互以及它们之间的资源流动。这些行为可以创建循环，从而形成系统。
These parts form the game’s “nouns” and “verbs.” Each part has its own internal attributes that determine its state (the “nouns”) and behaviors that create its function (the “verbs”). Attributes have values and define resources, while behaviors define a part’s interactions with other parts and the resource flows between them. These behaviors enable the creation of loops, which form systems.
换句话说，各个部分最终指定了游戏中的交互及其效果（包括对玩家的反馈），使玩家能够做出有意义的决定。这些决定以及游戏和玩家之间形成的交互循环创造了您作为设计师所设想的游戏体验。如第 7 章“设计师的循环”部分所述，作为设计过程的一部分，您需要能够在游戏组织层级之间移动。您需要能够将关注点从原子部分转移到系统循环再转移到整体体验，这样您就可以确保在最低级别定义的内容能够在最高级别创造您想要的体验。
Another way of saying this is that parts ultimately specify the interactions in the game as well as their effects—including feedback to the player—that enable the player to make meaningful decisions. These decisions and the interactive loop formed between the game and the player create the gameplay experience that you as the designer have in mind. As described in the section “The Designer’s Loop” in Chapter 7, you need to be able to move between the levels of organization in the game as part of the design process. You need to be able to change your focus from atomic parts to systemic loops to overall experience so that you can be sure that what is defined at the lowest level creates the experience you want at the highest level.
本章详细介绍了创建游戏部件的过程 — 如何确定这些部件应该是什么、它们包含什么以及它们的作用。与提出概念甚至设计游戏系统相比，这是游戏设计过程中最实际的部分：它涉及将游戏中更虚无缥缈的部分以文本字符串、数字以及数学和逻辑函数的形式带到现实中。
This chapter examines in detail what goes into creating parts for your game—how to figure out what those parts should be, what they contain, and what they do. Compared to coming up with a concept and even designing the game’s systems, this is the most grounded part of the game design process: it deals with bringing the more ethereal parts of the game down to Earth in the form of text strings, numbers, and mathematical and logical functions.
定义部件
Defining Parts
要创建游戏的各个部分，您必须将概念思想和动态过程从整体和循环组织级别降低到我们所说的电子表格特定级别。这是每个部分都完全定义的地方，并且其内部状态被精确指定，以至于没有任何歧义。最终，每个部分都将被分解转化为一系列结构标记，如第 3 章“游戏和游戏设计的基础”（以及第 7 章“部分作为循环组件”）中首次描述的那样，以及作用于这些结构的行为，以创建游戏的功能部分，并最终形成构成游戏系统的循环。
To create parts for a game, you have to bring the conceptual ideas and dynamic processes from the whole and loop organizational levels down to the level of being what we have called being spreadsheet specific. This is where each part is fully defined, and its internal state is precisely specified such that there is no ambiguity about it. Ultimately, every part will be broken down into a series of structural tokens, as first described in Chapter 3, “Foundations of Games and Game Design” (and in Chapter 7, in the section “Parts as Loop Components”), along with behaviors that act on those structures to create the functional parts of the game and ultimately the loops that make the game’s systems.
零件类型
Types of Parts
游戏中的各个部分代表游戏宇宙模型中的所有事物以及它们可以采取的所有动作。部分可能表示物理对象，例如角色、军队、树木等。或者部分可能是非物理概念，例如控制区域、情感甚至时间。最后，部分可能纯粹是代表性的，与游戏规则相关 - 例如，手中的最大牌数、游戏用户界面中的显示或控件，或游戏中的当前回合顺序。如本章后面所述，这些部分中的每一个都有状态和行为，由游戏中任何给定点的内部属性及其值创建。
Parts in a game represent all the things in the game’s model of the universe and all the actions they can take. A part may denote a physical object such as a character, an army, a tree, and so on. Or a part may be a nonphysical concept, such as area of control, emotion, or even time. Finally, a part may be purely representational and related to the game’s rules—for example, the maximum number of cards in a hand, displays or controls in the game’s user interface, or the current turn order in a game. Each of these has state and behaviors, as described later in this chapter, created by internal attributes and their values at any given point in the game.
游戏的各个部分
Your Game’s Parts
如果你已经开始为游戏勾勒出一些循环（游戏的内部模型以及任何属于交互循环的系统，如第 7 章所述），你可能会开始在这些循环中看到游戏的各个部分及其属性（游戏世界内的资源、货币和价值），它们构成了游戏的核心部分。这些是定义游戏各个部分的良好起点。大多数游戏都有少数几个玩家关注且互动最多的部分。这些通常位于游戏的核心循环中：在角色扮演游戏中，这些是玩家角色及其对手；在策略游戏中，它们可能是军队和玩家控制的区域。
If you have already begun sketching out some of the loops for your game (the game’s internal model and any systems that are part of the interactive loop, as discussed in Chapter 7), you will likely begin to see in these loops the parts and their attributes—the resources, currencies, and values within the game world—that form the core parts of your game. These are a good place to start in defining the game’s parts. Most games have a small number of parts that players focus on and with which they interact the most. These are usually found in the game’s core loops: in a role-playing game, these are the player characters and their opponents; in a strategy game, they might be armies and the area controlled by the player.
每个主要部分都会引导您找到主要部分使用的其他部分，这些部分以层次结构包含在其中：玩家角色拥有武器、盔甲、法术、战利品，也许还有宠物或马匹。战略游戏中的军队有不同类型的单位，控制区域有非物理问题，例如邻接和资源生产。列出这些内容将帮助您开始了解游戏中的部分数量及其层次结构。使用在循环级别定义的系统将帮助您了解哪些部分是原子的，哪些部分是由需要进一步指定的子系统构成的。
Each of these primary parts leads you to others that the primary parts use and that are contained within them hierarchically: the player character has weapons, armor, spells, loot, and maybe pets or a horse. The army in a strategy game has different kinds of units within it, and the area controlled has nonphysical concerns such as adjacency and resource production. Listing these out will help you begin to see the number of parts and their hierarchical organization for your game. Using the systems defined at the loops level will help you see which parts are atomic and which are made from subsystems that need further specification.
在处理不断增加的部件列表时，请考虑游戏中不同类型的对象：物理对象、非物理对象和表征对象——任何需要内部数据来定义其状态、具有影响游戏其他部分的行为或玩家与之交互的对象。因此，您可以从玩家角色开始，然后是角色携带的武器，然后是构成游戏库存系统的表征用户界面部分。
As you work through the ever-lengthening list of parts, consider the different types of objects in your game: the physical, nonphysical, and representational—anything that needs internal data to define its state, has behaviors that affect other parts of the game, or with which the player interacts. So you might start with the player character, then the weapons that character carries, and then the representational user interface parts that form the inventory system for the game.
除非你的游戏范围非常狭窄，否则零件列表很快就会变得很长。（这可能是你第一次遇到游戏范围；如果是这样，请考虑这个列表是您需要确定游戏中需要多少艺术、动画和编程工作。）将各个部分按类型分开会很有帮助，通常放在电子表格的不同工作表上。一种好的区分方法是将有共同属性的对象分组。这样，您就不会将环境对象与敌方 NPC 和代表性用户界面对象（如玩家手中的牌）混在一起。将它们分开将有助于确保您的列表没有缺少游戏所需的主要部分。您还会注意到，同一类型（物理的、非物理的或面向规则的）的对象往往具有许多共同的属性和行为。
The list of parts will soon become long, unless your game is extremely narrowly focused. (This may be your first encounter with game scope; if so, consider that this list is a good proxy for how much work in the form of art, animation, and programming will go into your game.) It helps to keep your parts separate by type, often on different sheets of a spreadsheet. A good way to separate them is by grouping together those that share common attributes. This way, you don’t have environmental objects mixed together with enemy NPCs and representational user interface objects like the cards currently in the player’s hand. Keeping these separate will help you be sure your list isn’t missing major parts needed for your game. You will also notice that objects of the same type (physical, nonphysical, or rules oriented) tend to have many attributes and behaviors in common.
您的游戏世界中可能还存在背景对象（例如用户界面中的装饰），它们没有内部状态或行为；这些需要包含在艺术列表或用户界面描述中，但它们不构成参与游戏中任何系统的部分。
There may also be background objects in your game world—decorations in the user interface, for example—that have no internal state or behaviors; these need to be included in an art list or user interface description, but they don’t form parts that participate in any system in your game.
内部状态
Internal State
如前所述，系统中的每个部分都有内部状态。对于简单的原子部分，这是部分内每个属性和（用计算机术语来说）变量的当前值。此状态可能包括当前健康量（hitPoints = 5）、财富（gold = 10）或部分包含的任何其他资源。它还包括类型（class = Ranger）、字符串（secretName =“Steve”）以及任何其他具有名称和值的可定义特征。这些属性实际上是现实世界系统中近乎无限回归的替代品：例如，为了方便起见，您可以定义一个属性，表示“这个角色有五个生命值”，而不是定义一整套考虑角色健康的代谢系统。
As described earlier, every part within a system has internal state. In the case of simple, atomic parts, this is the current value of each attribute and (in computer terms) variable within the part. This state may include things like the current amount of health (hitPoints = 5), wealth (gold = 10), or any other resources the part contains. It also includes types (class = Ranger), strings (secretName = “Steve”), and any other definable trait that has a name and a value. These attributes are in effect stand-ins for the nearly infinite regress of real-world systems: instead of defining a whole set of metabolic systems that account for a character’s health, for example, for convenience you can define a single attribute that says “this character has five hit points.”
名称-值对（也称为属性-值对或键-值对）的概念在计算机编程和数据库构建中很常见。它允许创建一个名称，该名称可以保存一定量的数据，这些数据可以在程序运行时更改。如果这是特定类型的数值数据（军队中的单位数量、账户中的美元数等），那么这相当于系统术语中的股票。通常，系统中的部件具有一个或多个属性，每个属性在任何给定时间点都有一个值。这些属性及其值共同构成了部件的状态。
The concept of name–value pairs (also known as attribute–value pairs or key–value pairs) is a common one in computer programming and database construction. It allows for the creation of a name that can hold some amount of data that can change as the program runs. If this is numerical data of a particular kind (number of units in an army, dollars in an account, and so on), then this is the same as a stock in systems terms. In general, a part in a system has one or more attributes, each of which has a value at any given point in time. Together these attributes and their values create the state of the part.
在面向对象编程术语中，部件可以很好地映射到类的实例：它具有数据成员（具有值的属性）以及执行其行为的方法或函数。面向对象（和基于组件）的编程模式通常非常适合创建部件、循环和系统整体。
In object-oriented programming terms, a part maps well to an instance of a class: it has data members (attributes with values) and methods or functions that carry out its behaviors. Object-oriented (and component-based) programming schemas often work well for creating parts, loops, and systemic wholes.
确定属性
Determining Attributes
创建游戏部件需要定义构成每个部件内部状态的属性以及体现其行为的功能。通过这样做，您可以将各个部件组装在一起以创建系统循环，从而创造您想要的游戏体验。
Creating the parts for your game requires defining the attributes that form each part’s internal state and the functions that embody its behaviors. By doing this, you can then assemble the parts together to create systemic loops and thus create the gameplay experience you’re looking for.
对于您定义的每个部分，首先添加其所需的属性。您希望拥有尽可能少的属性，因为每个属性都会增加规则和代码的复杂性，并代表一种破坏游戏平衡的新方式。从尽可能少的属性开始，然后在设计过程中根据需要添加更多属性。尽可能将两个相似的属性组合在不同的部分上；如果一个属性可以，就不要为两个不同的部分创建两个属性。
For each part you define, begin by adding the attributes it needs. You want to have as few attributes as possible, as each adds complexity to your rules and code and represents a new way to unbalance the game. Start with as few as possible and more as needed as you iterate through the design process. Whenever possible, combine two similar attributes on different parts; don’t create two attributes for two different parts if one will do.
和部件本身一样，一个好的开始方式是寻找玩家最常互动的属性，或者为玩家提供最有意义的决策的属性。如果两种攻击方式（例如，砍击和刺击）对游戏没有多大帮助，那么就只使用一种攻击属性。除非游戏是关于肉搏战的高度具体和精细的细节，否则一种属性可能就足够了（如果不是，你可以稍后添加第二个属性）。另一种看待这个问题的方式是考虑你是否可以快速地向玩家传达两种属性的不同之处，以及为什么它们对游戏中的玩家都很重要。如果不能，请删除其中至少一个或将它们合并为一个。
As with parts themselves, a good way to start here is to look for the attributes with which the player interacts the most or, alternatively, those that provide the most meaningful decisions for the player. If having two kinds of attack (slash versus pierce, for example) doesn’t add much to the game, use just one attack attribute. Unless the game is about the highly specific and fine-tuned details of hand-to-hand fighting, one attribute for this is probably enough (and if not, you can add a second one later). Another way to look at this is to think about whether you can quickly communicate to the player how two attributes are different and why they are both important to the player in the game. If not, remove at least one of them or combine them into one.
您还希望属性尽可能广泛地适用于各个部分。避免创建仅在一个或两个部分上使用的属性。例如，如果您想在可能被伪装或隐藏的部分上添加“可见性”属性，请考虑游戏中其他部分是否也可能被隐藏。如果这是游戏中唯一具有此功能的对象，是否值得包含它，还是最好也将其提供给其他部分？拥有大量一次性属性将使游戏更加复杂（但不一定更具吸引力），也会使编程行为更加困难。话虽如此，请注意，玩家在游戏中的表现（玩家的角色、国家等）可能是一个例外，鉴于玩家与游戏其他部分的独特关系，它可能具有多个独特属性。
You also want the attributes to be as broadly applicable across parts as possible. Avoid creating an attribute that is used on only one or two parts. If, for example, you want to put in a “visibility” attributes on a part that may be camouflaged or concealed, consider whether other parts may also be concealed in the game. If this is the only object in the game that has this ability, is it worth including, or is it better to make it available to other parts, too? Having a lot of one-use attributes will make the game more complicated (but not necessarily more engaging) and will make programming behaviors more difficult as well. That said, note that the player’s representation within the game (the player’s character, nation, and so on) may be an exception to this, potentially having multiple unique attributes, given the player’s unique relationship to the rest of the game.
最后，考虑与资源数量和费率相关的属性。例如，银行账户可能有一个描述其中金额的属性（例如，黄金 = 100）；这描述了库存（账户）中资源黄金的数量。您可能还有其他属性来确定该资源的变化率，例如收入和债务。如果收入 = 10 且债务 = 3，则余额将在每个时间段增加 7（时间段可能是账户部分的另一个属性，或者更有可能设置为游戏作为一个系统的全局属性，例如每回合或每分钟）。
Finally, consider attributes related to both the amount and rate of a resource. For example, a bank account is likely to have an attribute describing the amount of money in it (for example, gold = 100); this describes the amount of the resource gold in the stock (the account). You might have additional attributes that determine the rate of change of that resource, such as income and debt. If income = 10 and debt = 3, then the balance would increase by 7 every time period (the time period might be another attribute on the account-part or, more likely, set to an attribute that is global to the game as a system, like per turn or per minute).
描述数量的属性有时称为一级属性；影响资源变化率的属性称为二阶属性。也可能有三阶及以上的属性：在银行账户示例中，收入可能在缓慢增加（因此资源变化率本身也有变化率）。另一种看待三阶属性的方法包括 RPG 中的“到达下一级别需要多长时间”等应用。角色的经验值是一级属性。角色获得新经验值的速率（如果存在持续的违约率，如许多放置类游戏）是二阶属性。通常情况下，这个速率会随着角色的级别而变化，随着每个级别的数量增加而上升升到下一等级的经验值本身也会增加。升到下一等级所需的经验值数量和该等级的新变化率都是三阶属性的例子。
Attributes that describe an amount are sometimes called first-order attributes; those that affect the rate of change in a resource are second-order ones. It’s possible to have third-order attributes and beyond as well: it might be that in the bank account example, income is slowly increasing (so the rate of resource change itself has a rate of change). Another way to look at third-order attributes includes applications like “how long to the next level” in RPGs. A character’s experience points are a first-order attribute. The rate at which a character gains new ones (if there is an ongoing default rate, as in many idle games) is a second-order attribute. It’s often the case that this rate changes with the character’s level, going up with each level, as the number of experience points to the next level itself increases. The number of experience points to gain the next level and the new rate of change at that level are both examples of third-order attributes.
是否将这些（尤其是二阶和三阶值）作为属性包括在内，或将它们编码到部件的行为函数中，这本身就是一个设计决策。如果您可以简单地表示潜在属性的目的，那么就将其设为具有数值的属性。如果该值需要逻辑来确定，那么它就成为行为的输出（部件从简单变为独立的系统）。
Whether to include these, especially second- and third-order values, as attributes or to encode them in behavioral functions on the part is itself a design decision. If you can represent the purpose of a potential attribute simply, then make it an attribute with a numeric value. If the value requires logic to determine, then it becomes the output of a behavior (and the part goes from being simple to being a system of its own).
属性范围
对于您在部件上定义的每个数字属性，您还需要确定有效值的范围。此范围有几个要求。首先，它必须是您作为设计师可以直观理解的东西，并且同样重要的是，可以清楚地传达给玩家。它还需要在所有使用它的部件上都能很好地工作，并且需要提供足够的宽度以充分区分值。同时，如果范围太大，您和/或玩家可能会失去对数字含义的感觉。
For every numeric attribute you define on a part, you need to determine the range of valid values as well. This range has several requirements. First, it needs to be something you as the designer can intuitively understand and—just as importantly—can communicate clearly to the player. It also needs to work well across all the parts that use it, and it needs to provide enough breadth for sufficient discrimination between values. At the same time, if the range is too large, there is a risk that you and/or the player will lose the feel for what the numbers mean.
例如，您可以决定使用该属性的所有部件的攻击值范围为 0-10。您需要确定您是否直观地理解（并且可以与玩家沟通）该范围内 5 和 6 的含义，以及 5 和 6 之间是否存在足够的差异，以致您永远不需要该范围内的 5.5。如果不是，那么您可能需要将范围更改为 0-100。但是，您可能不需要使用 0-1,000 的攻击值范围，因为 556 和 557 之间不太可能存在任何可辨别的差异。并且，虽然出于编程目的，由于字节表示，0-128 或 0-255 的范围通常很有用，但您几乎肯定会将其转置回 0-100 甚至 0-10 的范围以供玩家使用，因为大多数人不擅长以二进制或十六进制思考。
For example, you may decide that the range for attack values on all parts that use that attribute is 0–10. You need to decide if you understand intuitively—and can communicate to the player—what a 5 versus a 6 on that range means and whether there is enough difference between a 5 and a 6 that you’ll never need a 5.5 on that scale. If not, then you may want to change the range to be 0–100 instead. However, you probably won’t need to use a range for an attack value of 0–1,000, as there’s not likely to be any discernible difference between, say, 556 and 557. And, while for programming purposes a range of 0–128 or 0–255 is often useful due to byte representations, you will almost certainly end up transposing that back to a 0–100 or even 0–10 range for the player, as most people don’t do well at thinking in binary or hexadecimal.
在大多数情况下，数值属性都是整数，因为它们易于理解，并且基于整数的数学运算比涉及实数（或浮点数）的运算更快。在某些情况下，当多个概率函数发挥作用时，您可能决定定义 0.0–1.0 的属性范围。这使得数学运算更容易，但您仍然面临让这些值对玩家和您作为设计师有意义的问题；许多人难以辨别 0.5 和 0.05 等数字之间的显著差异。在这种情况下，一些设计师喜欢定义一个较大的整数范围，例如 0–10,000，然后在需要操作这些值时，他们只需将每个值除以 10,000 即可将它们转换为 0.0–1.0 的范围（这种数学操作称为规范化）。为了与玩家沟通，数字可以以在上下文中最有意义的任何形式显示，从整数到应用于这些数字的文本标签（即从“糟糕”到“棒极了”，映射到底层数字）。
In most cases, numeric attributes are integers, as they are easy to understand, and integer-based mathematical operations are faster than those involving real (or floating-point) numbers. In some cases, as where multiple probability functions come into play, you may decide to define an attribute range of 0.0–1.0. This makes the math easier, but you still have the problem of making the values meaningful to the player and to yourself as the designer; many people have difficulty discerning a significant difference between numbers like 0.5 and 0.05. In cases like this, some designers like to define a large integer range such as 0–10,000 and then when it comes time to manipulate the values, they simply divide each by 10,000 to convert them to the range 0.0–1.0 (a mathematical manipulation known as normalization). For communication to the player, the number can be shown in whatever form makes the most sense in context, from integer numbers to text labels applied to those numbers (that is, ranging from “terrible” to “awesome,” mapped to the underlying numbers).
最后，虽然对概率的完整讨论超出了本书的范围，但对于你作为一名设计师来说，了解线性范围和具有不同范围的范围之间的区别是很重要的。形状（尤其是钟形曲线）以及它们如何影响您的设计和玩法。第 9 章“游戏平衡方法”将对此进行更详细的介绍。现在，要理解百分位范围是 1-100 的数字，其中每个数字出现的概率均等：99 与 37 和 2 的概率相同。具有差异概率的范围就像您从投掷两个六面骰子中得到的范围。范围本身是 2 到 12，但每个数字出现的概率并不均等（参见图 9.1）。当投掷两个六面骰子并将所示的数字相加时，得到 2（两个一加在一起）的概率约为 3%。投掷 12 也是如此，因为只有当每个骰子都投出 6 时才会出现这种情况。投掷两个六面骰子中最常见的数字是 6，投掷出的概率约为 17%。这种情况之所以更加常见，是因为 6 的结果可以通过多种方式得到（将两个骰子相加即可得到 5+1、4+2、3+3、2+4 和 1+5）。
Finally, while a full discussion of probability is beyond the scope of this book, it is important for you as a designer to understand the difference between linear ranges and ranges with different shapes (especially bell curves) and how they affect your design and gameplay. This is covered in more detail in Chapter 9, “Game Balance Methods.” For now, understand that a percentile range is the numbers 1–100, where each number has an equal chance of appearing: 99 is as likely as 37 and 2. A range with differential probability is one like you get from rolling two six-sided dice. The range itself is 2 to 12, but each number does not have an equal chance of appearing (see Figure 9.1). When rolling two six-sided dice and adding the numbers shown, the chance of getting a 2 (two ones added together) is about 3%. The same is true for rolling a 12, since it happens only when each die rolls a 6. The most common number from rolling two six-sided dice is a 6, which has about a 17% chance of being rolled. The reason that this is so much more common is that the result of 6 can be gotten multiple ways (5+1, 4+2, 3+3, 2+4, and 1+5 when adding the two dice together).
在为属性分配范围时，您需要了解如何确定该属性以及适合该属性的总体范围。从概率角度而言，10 的值在 1 到 10 的线性范围内与在 2 到 12 的钟形曲线范围内的含义截然不同，而且在每种情况下，它对您和您游戏中的玩家来说可能都意味着不同的东西。
When assigning ranges to attributes, you need to understand how that attribute will be determined as well as the appropriate overall range for it. A value of 10 means something very different in terms of probability in a linear scale from 1 to 10 than it does on a bell curve scale from 2 to 12, and it may well mean something different to you and to the player in your game in each case.
航海示例
A Nautical Example
通过查找游戏部件和属性的详细示例可以帮助您了解此过程的工作原理，以及它如何与整个游戏体验和循环系统的创建联系在一起。
Going through a detailed example of finding the parts and attributes for a game may help you understand how this process works, as well as how it links together with the whole gameplay experience and the creation of looping systems.
假设你想制作一款关于帆船时代的海战的游戏——炮火、风中风帆的轰鸣、船舰相撞后船员在烟雾中登船，诸如此类。在构思这个概念时，你决定，由于帆船之间的战斗有时没有太多动作，所以这款游戏更注重战略和战术决策，而不是使用快节奏的动作。这个决定可以帮助你了解游戏将具有的互动类型，以及如何花费玩家的互动预算。
Suppose you want to make a game about naval battles in the age of sail—cannon fire, sails snapping in the wind, crew boarding in the smoke after the ships crash together, all that. In hashing out the concept, you decide that because battles between sailing ships have times when there’s not a lot of action, this game is more about strategic and tactical decisions than using fast-paced action. That decision helps you see the kinds of interactivity the game will have and how you will spend the player’s interactivity budget.
在构思过程中，你会不断完善概念：你可能会尝试加入海精灵和海龙等想法，但随后你谨慎地决定保留最初的核心概念，避免将其变成一个范围更广的幻想游戏。你对大型战列舰的面对面交战也比对海盗偷袭小帆船更感兴趣。你最终会想到玩家建造自己的海军舰艇并与游戏中的敌人作战（而不是由另一个人类玩家扮演）。
During the concept process, you refine the concept: you might toy with ideas like including sea elves and sea dragons, but then you prudently decide to stay with the original core concept, steering clear of turning this into a fantasy game with a more sprawling scope. You’re also more interested in big ships of the line engaging yardarm-to-yardarm than in sneak attacks by pirates on small sailboats. You eventually home in on the idea of players building up and fighting their naval ships against those of an enemy run by the game (as opposed to being played by another human player).
所有这些选择都聚焦于你的游戏概念，并帮助你决定你需要的系统：你决定玩家的总体目标是建立海军来保卫国家的航运，所以这意味着一个包含经济循环的主要进程系统：当玩家成功保卫他们的港口和在那里发生的贸易时，他们会获得更多的金钱用于建造和修理船只并雇佣船员。另一个代表商人贸易的经济子系统发生在游戏模型中；玩家不会直接与其互动，但你也需要考虑该系统的各个部分。
All these choices focus your game concept and help you decide on the systems you’ll need: you decide that the player’s overall goal is to build up their navy to defend their nation’s shipping, so this implies a primary progression system that includes an economic loop: as the player successfully defends their ports and the trade that happens there, they are awarded more money to use to build and repair ships and hire men for crew. Another economic subsystem representing the merchant trading happens within the game model; the player doesn’t directly interact with it, but you need to think about the parts for that system as well.
如果敌舰击沉了玩家国家过多的商船，或者更糟的是占领了港口城市，玩家的反击能力就会因为资金损失而受到限制。（请注意，这表明存在潜在的富人越来越富的问题，如果玩家开始失败，他们可能没有能力重新获得优势，因此您需要加入某种形式的平衡循环来解决这个问题——也许是国王一次性给予玩家一笔钱，让玩家用来夺回港口。）
If enemy ships sink too many of the player’s nation’s merchants or, even worse, take a port city for their own, the player’s ability to strike back will be limited due to the loss of funds. (Note that this indicates a potential rich-get-richer problem, where if a player begins to lose they may not have the ability to regain the upper hand, so you’ll want to include some form of balancing loop to take care of that—maybe a one-time boon from the king of a lump sum for the player to use to take back the port.)
鉴于此，游戏的核心循环是玩家指挥自己舰队和敌方舰队之间的战斗。此外还有一个外循环，玩家使用收入建造或修理船只并雇佣船员（也可能获取情报或进行其他活动）。
Given this, the game’s core loop involves the player directing battles between the ships in their fleet and those in the enemy’s fleet. There’s an outer loop as well, where the player uses their income to build or repair ships and hire crew (and perhaps also gain intelligence or other activities).
寻找核心部分
舰船很快就成为游戏中的主要部分：它们是游戏核心循环和玩家整体进程系统的关键。由于舰船会四处移动，因此您需要某种导航系统，包括表示舰船如何根据风向定位以符合整体主题。由于舰船会与其他舰船作战，因此您需要一个战斗系统（一种平衡循环生态系统，其中多艘舰船相互对抗）。您的海军将有多艘舰船，每艘舰船都需要定义自己的属性和行为，以便它们可以参与导航和战斗，并为玩家提供有趣的决策。每艘舰船还需要知道它属于哪个海军，这样舰船就不会向来自同一国家的其他舰船开火。
Ships quickly emerge as the primary part within the game: they are key to the game’s core loop and the player’s overall progression system. Because the ships move around, you need some kind of navigation system, including representing how the ship is oriented to the wind to keep with the overall theme. And because ships fight other ships, you need a combat system (a balancing loop ecology with multiple ships acting against each other). Your navy will have multiple ships in it, and each needs to have its own attributes and behaviors defined so that it can take part in navigation and combat and also provide interesting decisions for the player to make. Each ship also needs to know which navy it belongs to, so ships don’t fire on others from the same nation.
有了所有这些信息，就有无数种方法将飞船定义为游戏中的一部分。飞船可能是只包含名称-值对（包括各种资源的数量）的原子部分，也可能包含子系统。例如，飞船必须有船员。这仅仅是一个数字名称-值对，如“船员 = 100”，还是飞船内有一个完整的子系统来管理船员训练、士气等？
With all this information, there are innumerable ways to define a ship as a part in a game like this. The ship may be an atomic part containing only name–value pairs (including quantities of various resources), or it may have subsystems within it. For example, a ship has to have a crew. Is this just a numeric name–value pair, like “crew = 100,” or is there a whole subsystem within the ship that governs crew training, morale, and so on?
这是游戏设计师在定义部件时必须做出的决定：您需要考虑要创建的体验和玩家的互动预算，以及您已开始定义的循环系统。除了最适合您正在制作的游戏之外，没有一个正确的答案。如果船员只是船上的修饰符，使船只航行得更快、战斗得更好，对这个游戏来说会更好吗？还是您想要更多细节，单独定义军官，全体船员都具有一定的训练水平（玩家可以付费增加），士气水平在战斗中上下波动？提供更多细节通常会为玩家提供更多决策，但很容易走得太远。如果玩家的海军中有 2 或 3 艘船，这种细节水平可能会受到欢迎；如果他们有 200 艘船，这将成为除了最忠实的“航海时代”爱好者之外所有人的繁重工作。作为设计师，你需要对这些不同的可能性持开放态度，创建一个初始设计，并进行游戏测试以查看其是否可行。（第 12 章“让你的游戏变得真实”提供了有关游戏测试的更多详细信息。）
This is the kind of game designer’s decision you have to make in defining parts: you need to consider the experience you’re trying to create and the player’s interactivity budget, along with the looping systems you’ve begun to define. There is no one right answer except what is best for the game you are making. Is it better for this game if the crew is just a modifier on the ship that makes it sail faster and fight better, or do you want more detail, with officers defined individually and an overall crew having a certain level of training (that the player can pay to increase) and a level of morale that goes up and down during battle? Providing more detail generally provides more decisions for the player, but it’s easy to go too far with this. If the player has 2 or 3 ships in their navy, this level of detail might be welcome; if they have 200, this is going to become an onerous chore for all but the most dedicated “age of sail” enthusiasts. As a designer, you need to be open to these different possibilities, create an initial design, and playtest it to see if it works. (Chapter 12, “Making Your Game Real,” provides more detail on playtesting.)
定义属性
现在，您决定在飞船内创建一些与船员相关的属性：crewNumber、crewTraining 和 crewMorale。每个属性都有一个整数值，将用作飞船部件行为的输入。稍后，如果游戏体验需要，您可能会将其中一个或多个属性转变为飞船内的子系统。设计过程中的这种变化很常见，但从简单的开始，您可以先看看这是否足够。您还决定添加非数字属性 shipNation 和 shipName，以提供游戏中每艘飞船所需的标识符，如前所述。
For now, you decide to create a few crew-related attributes within the ship: crewNumber, crewTraining, and crewMorale. Each of these has a value that is an integer number and will be used as inputs to the ship part’s behaviors. Later, you might turn one or more of these into its own subsystem within the ship if the game experience needs it. This kind of change in the design process is common, but by starting simple, you can see if this is sufficient first. You also decide to add the nonnumeric attributes shipNation and shipName to provide the identifiers needed in the game for each ship, as mentioned earlier.
您需要对与导航和战斗相关的船舶属性进行类似的处理。例如，船舶可能具有 maxSpeed 属性。那么船舶可以转弯的速度、可以携带的最大帆数以及当前设置的数量呢？这些听起来都像是船舶上附加整数属性的候选 - 尽管每个属性也很容易导致新的子系统，这同样取决于您希望在游戏中拥有的细节数量 - 并与玩家进行交流。这些都是您需要做出的重要设计决策。
You need to go through a similar process with the ship’s attributes that relate to navigation and combat. The ship might have a maxSpeed attribute, for example. What about how quickly the ship can turn, the maximum number of sails it can carry, and the number it currently has set? These all sound like candidates for additional integer attributes on the ship—though each could also easily lead to new subsystems, again depending on the amount of detail you want to have in the game—and to communicate to the player. These are all important design decisions you need to make.
对于战斗，舰船可以有一个属性来描述它有多少门可以工作的大炮，以确定其攻击的强度。这些大炮的射击速度和质量取决于前面提到的船员属性。在考虑这一点时，为了让游戏更有质感，你决定将每艘船的船长与船员分开。这允许玩家为每艘船分配英雄船长，如纳尔逊上将、科克伦勋爵或幸运杰克奥布里。有些船长比其他船长航行或战斗能力更强，这使得玩家选择让谁指挥每艘船成为一个有意义的游戏决定。这种思路清楚地表明，这些船长本身就是一部分，具有你需要定义的自身属性。每艘船现在都有一个名为“船长”的属性，它本身就是一部分，具有自己的内部属性和行为，这些属性和行为添加到船的属性中。
For combat, the ship could have an attribute that describes how many working cannon it has in order to determine the strength of its attack. How fast and well those cannon fire will depend on the crew attributes mentioned earlier. While thinking about this, to give the game more texture, you decide that you will separate out the captain of each ship from its crew. This allows the player to allocate hero captains like Admiral Nelson, Lord Cochrane, or Lucky Jack Aubrey to each ship. Some captains sail or fight better than others, making the player’s choice of who to put in command of each ship a meaningful decision in the game. This line of thinking makes it clear that these captains are parts themselves, with their own attributes that you need to define. Each ship now has an attribute called “captain” that is itself a part with its own internal attributes and behaviors that add to those of the ship.
详细设计过程
上一节并未列出您需要定义以创建游戏所需令牌的部分的完整列表，但它可以让您了解如何开始以及该过程必须有多详细。构思游戏概念对设计师来说可能很有趣，但要让游戏成为现实，您必须深入到这个具体程度，定义游戏中的每个部分及其属性。有些部分简单而原子化，而其他部分则包含自己的系统。正如我们将看到的，所有部分都有行为，并且大多数都会影响玩家在游戏中的决策。所有这些都是支持游戏体验所需的系统的一部分，无论是与玩家交互还是与游戏内部模型中的其他部分交互。
The preceding section doesn’t present a complete list of the parts you need to define to create the tokens needed for your game, but it gives you an idea of how to begin and how detailed the process must be. Thinking up the concept for a game can be lots of fun for a designer, but to make the game become real, you have to get down to this level of specificity, defining each and every part and its attributes in the game. Some parts are simple and atomic, and others contain their own systems. As we will see, all parts have behaviors, and most contribute to player decisions in the game. All are part of systems needed to support the gameplay experience, whether in interacting with the player or interacting with other parts in the game’s internal model.
通常，您需要限制游戏中主要作为游戏循环的一部分存在但与玩家几乎没有交互的属性、部件和系统的数量。上面提到的贸易系统决定了玩家保护商船能获得多少奖励。这是一个没有太多玩家可见性或交互的系统示例，但这些系统很少。创建和平衡系统中的各个部分是一项复杂的迭代任务（请参阅第 9 章和第10章“游戏平衡实践”）。如果它不会导致与玩家的交互和决策，那么最好让这些系统尽可能简单，并将您的精力放在其他地方。否则，您可能会在玩家永远看不到的东西上花费大量的时间和精力。
You will typically want to limit the number of attributes, parts, and systems in the game that exist primarily as part of the game loop but that have little if any interaction with the player. The trade system mentioned above governs how much of a reward the player gets for protecting merchant shipping. This is an example of a system that exists without a lot of player visibility or interaction, but there will be few of these. Creating and balancing the parts in a system is a complex, iterative task (see Chapters 9 and 10, “Game Balance Practice”). If it’s not going to result in interactions with and decisions for the player, it’s often best to make these systems as simple as possible and put your efforts elsewhere. Otherwise, you can spend a great deal of time and effort on something the player will never see.
虽然这只是定义游戏部件过程的开始，但您已经拥有一些代表物理对象的部件，并暗示了一些非物理和表征部件（例如国籍和船名的概念），这些部件与游戏规则和用户界面更相关。查看您定义的不同部分，一些漏洞变得显而易见：风应该是游戏中的重要部分，但它尚未表现出来。它可能具有方向和强度的属性 - 以及它改变方向的频率。也许风是一个复杂的部分，包含另一个与船舶交互的子系统。拥有训练有素的船员的船应该航行得更快吗？很可能，而且由于您已经在船员部分的属性中编码了训练的概念，因此添加它并不需要花费太多时间。
While this is just a start on the process of defining parts for a game, already you have a few parts that represent physical objects and hints at parts that are nonphysical and representational (the concept of nationality and ship name, for example), related more to the rules and user interface of the game. Looking at the different parts you have defined, some holes become obvious: wind should be an important part in the game, but it’s not represented yet. It might have attributes for direction and intensity—and maybe how often it changes direction. Perhaps the wind is a complex part containing another subsystem that interacts with the ship. Should a ship with a better-trained crew sail faster? Probably, and because you already have the concept of training encoded in an attribute on the crew-part, it doesn’t take a lot to add this.
定义部件、属性和子系统（递归定义每个部件中的部件）的过程并不是必须一次性完成的。事实上，最好将其作为设计师循环的一部分以迭代方式进行。首先，定义对游戏核心循环和您想要的整体游戏体验更明显必要的部件和属性。然后定义部件的行为，以便将它们链接到循环中。最后，迭代此过程，创建模型和原型以测试和改进您的想法（请参阅第 12 章）。即使是一个丑陋的原型，只要它具有完整的核心循环，也能让您在很大程度上了解游戏本身是否值得追求。
This process of defining parts, attributes, and subsystems (recursively defining the parts within each) is not one you have to complete all at once. In fact, it’s better to approach this iteratively as part of your designer’s loop. First, define the parts and attributes that seem more clearly necessary for the game’s core loops and the overall gameplay experience you want. Then move to defining the behaviors of the parts so you can link them into loops. Finally, iterate on this process, creating mockups and prototypes to test and refine your thinking as you go (see Chapter 12). Getting even an ugly prototype up and running with a full core loop will take you a long way toward understanding if the game itself is worth pursuing.
指定部件的行为
Specifying Behaviors for Parts
除了具有状态（属性及其值）之外，部件还具有行为。这些行为是属性结构的功能补充。它们是部件相互作用以形成循环系统和创造游戏玩法的手段：这就是引擎、经济、擒纵机构和生态系统的制作方式。这些行为也是游戏部件与玩家互动并向玩家提供反馈的方式。
In addition to having state—attributes and their values—parts also have behaviors. These behaviors are the functional complement to the attributes’ structure. They are the means by which parts interact to form looping systems and create gameplay: this is how engines, economies, escapements, and ecologies are made. These behaviors are also how the game’s parts interact with and provide feedback to the player.
在指定部件的行为时，了解部件如何运作和互动非常重要：它们会创建、消耗或交换哪些资源？请记住，部件和资源可能是物理的、非物理的或具象的，因此它们的功能可能包括创造或消耗诸如运动、时间、经验、理智和组合等资源，以及诸如健康、金钱和矿石等物质资源。
When specifying behaviors for parts, it’s important to understand how the parts function and interact: what resources do they create, consume, or exchange? Remember that parts and resources may be physical, nonphysical, or representational, so their function may include creating or consuming resources such as movement, time, experience, sanity, and combos, in addition to more physical ones, such as health, money, and ore.
玩家在玩游戏时也会与各种部件和资源进行互动。他们试图积累一些资源，并可能试图摆脱或最小化其他资源。一些具有属性和资源的部件使用其行为来帮助玩家，而其他部件则使用其行为阻碍玩家，阻止玩家实现目标。玩家必须在心理循环中做出决定，从而在选择前进方向和玩游戏方式时与游戏进行互动。
The player, too, is interacting with various parts and resources to play the game. They are trying to accumulate some resources and may be trying to get rid of or minimize others. Some parts with their attributes and resources use their behaviors to aid the player, and other parts use their behaviors to stand in the player’s way, pushing back against the player’s attempts to attain their goals. A player must make decisions as part of their mental loop that lead to interactions with the game as they choose which way to go and how to play the game.
行为创造原则
Principles of Behavior Creation
总而言之，资源的每一次变化、两部分或玩家与游戏之间的互动，都必须有行为。定义行为可能很困难，尤其是当你试图记住你试图创建的系统和游戏玩法时。虽然每个游戏的过程细节都不同，但有一些最重要的原则可以帮助指导你的工作。
The sum of all this is that for every change in a resource or an interaction between two parts or the player and the game, there must be a behavior. Defining behaviors can be difficult, especially as you try to keep in mind the systems and gameplay you are attempting to create. While the specifics of the process are different for every game, there are some overriding principles that will help guide your efforts.
通过本地行动设计行为
创建可以说是局部行为的行为很重要：也就是说，行为应该与组织级别大致相同且处于相同操作环境中的其他部分交互。使用上面的航海示例，我们可以在船上的大炮上创建各种行为以用于战斗。这些功能可能对船员（例如，使他们更累）和其他船只（造成损坏）起作用，这是合理的，因为它们都处于大致相同的组织级别和相同的操作环境中。让大炮影响特定港口的贸易量显然是非局部的：港口在游戏的世界模型中处于完全不同的组织级别，并且从操作上讲，这两者几乎没有合理的直接联系。
It is important to create behaviors that can be said to act locally: that is, a behavior should interact with other parts that are at about the same level of organization and that are in the same operational context. Using the nautical example from above, we might create various behaviors on ship’s cannon to be used in combat. It’s reasonable that these functions might act on the ship’s crew (making them more tired, for example) and on other ships (inflicting damage), as these are both at about the same level of organization and in the same operational context. Having cannon affect the amount of trade done in a particular port is decidedly nonlocal: the port is at a completely different level of organization in the game’s model of the world, and operationally these two have little reasonable direct connection.
局部动作的另一个方面是，某个部分的行为会产生影响 (例如，资源发生变化)，但无法确定另一部分如何响应。以炮火为例，一艘船可能会用大炮对另一艘船造成 20 点伤害，但无法确定该伤害具体如何影响其目标。它可能会导致船员、大炮、船帆损失，甚至沉没，但受到伤害的部分会将这些判断作为其行为的一部分。用系统思维的语言来说，一个部分可以扰乱另一个部分的状态，但无法确定该部分的状态。在面向对象编程中，此原则被描述为封装— 即一个对象无法“进入”另一个对象来设置其属性值。
Another aspect of local action is that a part’s behavior supplies an effect (for example, a change in resource) but does not determine for another part how that part responds. Using the cannon fire example, a ship might do 20 points of damage with its cannon to another ship, but it does not determine how that damage specifically affects its target. It might result in the loss of crew, cannon, sails, or even sinking, but the part that received that damage makes those determinations as part of its behavior. In the language of systems thinking, one part can perturb another part’s state, but it cannot determine that part’s state. In object-oriented programming, this principle is described as encapsulation—the idea that one object cannot “reach inside” another to set its attribute values.
创建通用的模块化行为
行为应该尽可能通用、模块化、通用或无上下文。行为应该尽可能简单，不要包含比实际更多的上下文信息。它们是必要的，并且它们应该足够通用，以便在许多情况下都能使用。例如，当一艘船上的大炮向另一艘船开火时，它们会对该船造成伤害。这是本地的、简单的和模块化的，并且不受任何总体上下文的影响。大炮不需要知道另一艘船是否是敌人，也不需要知道它已经受到了多少伤害；这些是上下文线索，应该由其他行为来处理（例如，玩家或 NPC 船长决定是否发射大炮）。
Behaviors should be as general, modular, and generic or context-free as possible. Behaviors should be as simple as they can be, not incorporating more contextual information than necessary, and they should be generic enough to be useful in many situations. So, for example, when cannon on one ship fire at another ship, they inflict damage on that ship. That is local, simple, and modular, and it is free of any overarching context. The cannon do not need to know whether the other ship is an enemy or how much damage it has already taken; these are contextual cues that should be handled by other behaviors (for example, the player or an NPC captain deciding whether to fire the cannon).
这似乎是一个显而易见的观点，但如果你不小心，额外的背景很容易潜入行为并限制它们的整体效用。这种情况经常发生，因为设计师创建了复杂的脚本行为，这些行为变得更加依赖于背景，因此在使用它们的情况下更加有限。例如，如果你有一个可以在建筑物周围走动的 NPC，你可以创建一个“开门”行为，他们可以将其用作从一个房间到另一个房间的一部分。这种行为不需要知道 NPC 为什么要从一个房间到另一个房间，或者如何解锁门或强行打开门：其他行为会处理这些上下文。同样，“开门”功能也只做这些。它不会打开门，也不需要知道为什么要开门。这种模块化程度将有助于保持每个行为在其目的和范围（开门、发射大炮等）内的通用性，而将其与附加信息纠缠在一起只会使其非模块化，并且在应用方面更加狭窄。继续走动的例子，将一般的“开门”行为与“将 NPC 从他们的住处移到指挥中心”的行为进行比较。此行为非常复杂且高度情境化：只有当 NPC 已经在他们的住处并且目的地是指挥中心时才能使用它；这需要付出很多努力却几乎没有用处，并且会阻止任何突发事件的发生。游戏中的许多脚本场景和行为都是以这种方式制作的。它们的缺点是实用性有限且很脆弱，因为它们通常不适用于游戏中的 NPC 功能。
This may seem like an obvious point, but extra context can easily creep into behaviors and limit their overall utility if you are not careful. This often happens as designers create elaborate scripted behaviors that become more dependent on context and thus more limited in the situations where they can be used. For example, if you have an NPC who can walk around a building, you might create an “open the door” behavior that they can use as part of going from one room to another. This behavior does not need to know why the NPC is going from one room to another or how to unlock a door or force it open: other behaviors take care of those contexts. In the same way, an “unlock door” function does only that. It does not open the door or need to know why the door is being opened. This level of modularity will help keep each behavior general in its purpose and within its sphere (unlocking a door, firing cannon, and so on), while tangling it up with additional information just makes it nonmodular and more narrow in how it can be applied. To continue the walking around example, compare the general “open door” behavior to one that has the purpose “move the NPC from their quarters to the command center.” This behavior is complex and highly contextual: it can be used only when the NPC is already in their quarters and only when their destination is the command center; this is a lot of effort for very little usage, and it prevents any emergence from happening. Many scripted scenes and behaviors in games are made this way. They suffer from having only narrow utility and being brittle, in that they are not generally applicable to the NPC’s function in the game.
创造涌现
让行为具有局部范围、在特定组织级别上运作且在运作上保持模块化和通用性的好处在于，这就是产生突发效果的方式。这些效果创造了无穷的变化，吸引了玩家的注意力，并以更少的内容和更低的开发成本实现了更好和更长时间的玩家参与，而不像尝试使用大量上下文脚本来实现相同的效果。
The benefit of making behaviors that are local in scope, operate at a particular level of organization, and remain modular and general in their operation is that this is how emergent effects arise. These effects create endless variety, grab the player’s attention, and enable better and longer player engagement for less content and lower development cost than attempting the same with heavily contextual scripting.
例如，在群集算法中，每只鸟都有三种不同的行为，即局部行为、模块化行为和通用行为。回想一下第 1 章，这是三条规则：
For example, in a flocking algorithm, each bird has three distinct behaviors that are local, modular, and generic. Recall from Chapter 1 that these are the three rules:
1.与周围的其他鸟儿飞行的方向和速度大致相同。
1. Fly in about the same direction and speed as other birds around you.
2.不要与附近的鸟类相撞。
2. Don’t collide with birds near you.
3.尝试向周围鸟类的重心移动。
3. Try to move toward the center of mass of the birds around you.
每一条规则都是每只鸟的一种行为，每只鸟都是整个系统的一部分。从这些行为的执行中，产生了动态的、不可预测的鸟群。类似地，康威的《生命游戏》（Gardner 1970）是一个细胞自动机，其中每个部分（二维网格中的一个细胞）都可以打开（黑色）或关闭（白色）。细胞的行为编码了简单、局部、模块化的规则，这些规则决定了细胞在下一次计时时是打开还是关闭：
Each of the rules is a behavior on each bird, and each bird exists as a part in the overall system. From the execution of these behaviors, dynamic and unpredictable flocks emerge. Similarly, Conway’s Game of Life (Gardner 1970) is a cellular automaton where each part—a cell in in a 2D grid—can be on (black) or off (white). The behavior of the cells encode simple, local, modular rules that determine whether a cell will be on or off on the next time tick:
1.如果该单元格的相邻单元格少于两个，则该单元格将处于关闭状态。
1. If the cell has fewer than two neighbors that are on, this cell will be off.
2.如果该单元格处于打开状态，并且具有两个或三个处于打开状态的邻居，则它保持打开状态。
2. If the cell is on and has two or three neighbors that are on, it remains on.
3.如果该单元格有三个以上的邻居处于打开状态，则它将关闭。
3. If the cell has more than three neighbors that are on, it will be off.
4.如果一个单元格处于关闭状态，并且恰好有三个邻居处于打开状态，则它会打开。
4. If a cell is off and has exactly three neighbors that are on, it turns on.
请注意，这些规则只考虑细胞的操作环境（即给定细胞的“邻居”的八个细胞），并且只影响细胞本身。这些行为不需要非局部效应或其他环境即可发挥作用。然而，从这些简单的规则中，出现了宏伟而迷人的突发效应。
Note that these rules only look at the cell’s operational context (the eight cells that are the “neighborhood” for a given cell), and they affect only the cell itself. There is no nonlocal effect or other context required for these behaviors to work. And yet, from these simple rules, magnificent and fascinating emergent effects appear.
游戏和模拟中还存在许多其他强有力的例子，这些例子表明局部通用规则会产生突发属性。在 Nicky Case 的《多边形寓言》（2014 年）中，系统中有两个部分可供玩家互动：三角形和正方形。这些多边形不会自行移动，但它们确实具有“幸福”行为，可以根据其局部环境改变其幸福属性：
Many other powerful examples of emergent properties arising from local, general-purpose rules exist in games and simulations. In Nicky Case’s Parable of the Polygons (2014), there are two parts in the system with which players interact: triangles and squares. These polygons don’t move on their own, but they do have a “happiness” behavior that changes their happiness attribute based on their local context:
1.如果一个多边形恰好有两个相邻的多边形形状相同，则该多边形是满意的。
1. A polygon is happy if exactly two of its neighbors are the same shape as it.
2.如果一个多边形的所有邻居都与它相似，那么这个多边形就是“meh”——既不快乐也不快乐。
2. A polygon is “meh”—neither happy or unhappy—if all its neighbors are like it.
3.如果一个多边形的邻居中只有一个与它相似，则该多边形为不快乐的多边形。只有不快乐的多边形才可以移动。
3. A polygon is unhappy if only one of its neighbors is like it. Only unhappy polygons may be moved.
玩家在这款游戏中的任务是通过移动多边形让尽可能多的多边形满意，或者至少确保没有多边形不满意。移动是一种基于玩家互动的行为，而不是多边形自己能做到的行为。
The player’s task in this game is to make as many polygons as happy as possible by moving them around, or at least to make sure that no polygon is unhappy. Movement is a player-interaction-based behavior and not one that the polygons can do for themselves.
这款游戏基于经济学家托马斯·谢林 (Thomas Schelling) 的研究，谢林指出，即使没有人希望这种情况发生，人群也可能变得高度隔离 (Schelling 1969)。正如《多边形寓言》所示，这种突发隔离是局部、一般行为的结果：玩家只需移动正方形和三角形来获得快乐（基于影响它们作为整体游戏系统一部分的规则），就会创造出隔离区域的突发结果，这些区域主要是正方形或三角形，它们之间几乎没有混合（见图8.1）。
This game is based on the work of economist Thomas Schelling, who showed that populations can become highly segregated even if no individual wants this to happen (Schelling 1969). The emergent segregation is the result of local, generic behaviors, as the Parable of the Polygons shows: just by moving squares and triangles around to be happy (based on the rules that affect them as parts in the overall game system), the player creates the emergent result of segregated areas that are mostly squares or mostly triangles, with little mixing between them (see Figure 8.1).
最后一个例子是 2016 年的游戏《史莱姆牧场》，其中有大量基于零件（可爱的小软糖状史莱姆）的突发游戏玩法示例，这些零件具有特定的、局部的、非情境的行为（Popovich 2017）。其中有两个例子（很多例子之一）涉及游戏中不同史莱姆的行为。
As a final example, the 2016 game Slime Rancher contains numerous examples of emergent gameplay based on parts (the cute little jelly-bean-like slimes) having specific, local, noncontextual behaviors (Popovich 2017). Two instances (of many) of this involve how different slimes act in the game.
图 8.1多边形的寓言。左图为游戏开始前的种群，分布多样，但多边形不快乐。右图为游戏开始后，没有多边形不快乐，但种群更加隔离
Figure 8.1 The Parable of the Polygons. Left, a population before the game is played, showing diverse placement but with unhappy polygons. Right, after the game is played, no polygons are unhappy, but their populations are more segregated
首先，当史莱姆彼此靠近时，它们喜欢堆叠在一起。这只是它们的一种行为，没有更大的目的；它是局部的、通用的，并不是被编程为更大事物的一部分。玩家经常将其视为史莱姆玩耍的方式，或者为了共同的目标而一起行动的方式，尽管这些都不是实际行为所固有的。堆叠在上下文和操作上是局部的，因为它只影响附近的史莱姆，不会以某种方式改变整个种群的特性。它作为其他行为的推动者也非常有效。例如，如果史莱姆被关在笼子里，但想要到达它们能探测到的附近食物源，它们堆叠的自然亲和力最终将使其中一些史莱姆能够越过围栏的屏障去获取食物。没有一只史莱姆有意这样做；这是两种局部行为（“堆叠”和“寻找食物”）的突发结果，尽管这对玩家来说是令人惊讶和高兴的。
First, the slimes like to stack on top of each other when they’re close together. It’s just a behavior they have that has no greater purpose; it is local, generic, and not programmed to be part of anything bigger. Players often perceive it as the way the slimes play, or act together toward a common end, though neither of these are inherent in the actual behavior. Stacking up is local contextually and operationally, as it affects only nearby slimes and doesn’t somehow change the character of the overall population. It’s also remarkably effective as an enabler for other behaviors. For example, if the slimes are penned up but want to get to a nearby food source that they can detect, their natural affinity for stacking up will eventually enable some of them to get over the pen’s barrier to get to the food. None of the slimes intend for this to happen; it’s the emergent result of two local behaviors (“stack up” and “seek food”), though it is surprising and delightful to players.
另一种更具体的行为是移动食物。有些史莱姆被称为“虎斑史莱姆”（它们看起来有点像虎斑猫），它们有一种行为，如果它们发现不能吃的食物，它们就会捡起食物并将其移动到已经有食物的另一个地方。同样，这种行为是局部的，并且在其环境中是有限的（它需要食物的存在），但它会导致玩家认为虎斑史莱姆要么“偷”食物，要么给其他史莱姆送食物礼物——这取决于玩家是看到虎斑史莱姆捡起食物并将其带走，还是将其放在已经有食物的其他史莱姆附近。它还具有在环境中重新分配食物的效果，这可能会扰乱其他史莱姆的行为。这可能会导致让玩家高兴的突发级联效应，但这并不是游戏中预先设定的。
Another more specific behavior is moving food. Some slimes, called “tabby slimes” (they look a bit like tabby cats), have a behavior where if they find food that they cannot eat, they pick it up and move it to another location that already has food. Again, this behavior is local and limited in its context (it requires the presence of food), but it results in the perception of either tabby slimes “stealing” food or, alternatively, bringing gifts of food to other slimes—depending on whether the player sees the tabby slime pick up the food and take it away or drop it off near some other slimes where there is already food. It also has the effect of redistributing food around the environment, which has the potential to perturb other slimes’ behavior. This can cause emergent cascade effects that delight players but are not preprogrammed into the game.
提供反馈
Providing Feedback
基于部件的行为的最后一个重要方面是部件向玩家提供有关游戏状态如何变化的反馈。这是完成玩家与游戏之间交互循环的关键点：玩家对游戏采取行动，改变其内部状态（如上所述，扰乱但不决定）。然后，游戏使用行为对其模型中的部件采取行动，并向玩家提供反馈以完成循环。虽然总会有例外，但如果你的游戏中有行为（动词），它就必须向玩家提供反馈，这并不夸张。如果某个部分没有行为或行为没有反馈，你需要非常仔细地思考它在游戏中是否真的需要。
A final important aspect of part-based behaviors is that parts provide feedback to the player about how the state of the game has changed. This is a vital point that enables the completion of the interactive loop between the player and the game: the player acts on the game, changing its internal state (perturbing but not determining, as mentioned above). The game then acts using behaviors on the parts within its model and provides feedback to the player to complete the loop. While there are always exceptions, it is not too strong to say that if you have a behavior—a verb—in your game, it must provide feedback to the player. If a part has no behavior or the behavior has no feedback, you need to question very carefully whether it’s really needed in the game.
玩家通过从游戏中获取反馈来创建自己的心理模型 — — 学习、确认或重新创建预测、了解哪些方法有效以及评估自己在游戏中的能力提升。作为心理循环的一部分，玩家会根据现有模型将游戏提供的反馈与预期进行比较，并相应地调整模型。这种反馈也是让玩家保持参与并继续玩游戏的原因。
Getting feedback from the game is how the player goes about creating their mental model of it—learning, confirming or re-creating predictions, seeing what works effectively, and assessing their own increase in ability in the game. As part of their mental loop, the player compares the feedback provided by the game with what they expected, based on their existing model, and adjusts their model accordingly. This feedback is also what keeps the player engaged and playing the game.
反馈和玩家期望
如果游戏的反馈符合玩家的期望，那么这是一种积极的体验，可以强化模型并加深他们对游戏的参与度。如果反馈令人惊讶，因为它与玩家的模型不符，但他们能够快速调整模型以匹配反馈，那么这是一种有效的学习体验，也是积极的体验。然而，如果反馈缺失、扭曲，或者太出乎意料，与玩家的心理模型不相容，以至于他们无法快速调整模型来理解反馈，这通常是一种负面体验。这种令人不快的体验会降低玩家的参与度和他们继续玩游戏的欲望。
If a game’s feedback matches a player’s expectations, that’s a positive experience that reinforces the model and deepens their engagement with the game. If the feedback is surprising in that it doesn’t match the player’s model, but they are able to quickly adjust the model to match the feedback, that’s a valid learning experience and is also experienced as positive. If, however, the feedback is missing, distorted, or so unexpected and incompatible with the player’s mental model that they cannot quickly adjust their model to make sense of the feedback, this is most often a negative experience. That kind of off-putting experience reduces the player’s engagement and their desire to continue with the game.
向玩家提供的反馈会告知他们其操作的效果以及游戏中发生的状态变化。这些变化可能是由于玩家最近的操作或已经进行一段时间的过程所致。想象一下打开炉子做饭：当你打开它时，你需要立即知道炉子正在加热。如果你把水烧开，过一会儿你就会得到关于水的状态（温度）随着这个过程的进行而发生变化的反馈。
Feedback to the player informs them of the effects of their actions and the state changes that have occurred in the game. These changes may be due to the player’s recent actions or to a process that has been in the works for some time. Think of this like turning on the stove to cook something: when you turn it on, you need to know immediately that a burner is heating up. And if you put some water on to boil, a little later you get feedback about the water’s state (temperature) having changed as that process proceeds.
反馈种类
在游戏中，玩家收到的反馈通常是视觉和听觉的，还有文字或符号信息。物体颜色、大小、动画或特殊效果（发光、烟花等）的变化都是视觉信号，表明某些东西已经发生变化，玩家可能需要注意。这些变化通常伴随着听觉提示——音调、音符、音乐变化或其他音效。大多数游戏更多地依赖视觉提示而不是听觉提示，部分原因是视觉信息比声音更能具体地说明哪个部分发生了变化。但这并不意味着声音不重要；如果说有什么问题的话，那就是大多数游戏仍然对可用的声音调色板使用得太少（而且使用得太缺乏想象力）。
In a game, feedback to a player is most often visual and auditory, along with textual or symbolic information. Changes in an object’s color, size, animation, or special effects (glow, fireworks, and so on) are all visual signals that something has changed that the player may need to attend to. These changes are often accompanied by auditory cues—tones, notes, changes in music, or other sound effects. Most games rely more on visual cues than auditory ones, in part because visual information is more specific about which part has changed than sound can easily convey. This does not mean that sound is unimportant, however; if anything, most games still make too little use (and too unimaginative use) of the palette of sound available to them.
如前所述，每个这样的状态变化（游戏中每个部分的行为动作）都应伴随一些反馈通知给玩家。如果变化与玩家无关，因此不值得反馈，你需要检查这种改变是否对游戏是必要的。玩家是否需要知道该部分的状态（以及状态的变化）来改善他们对游戏的心理模型？有些反馈可能很微妙，比如温度计条慢慢填充以显示随时间的变化，但完整的状态变化，比如建筑物建造完毕并可以使用时，需要更强调的通知。如果玩家错过了他们的军队已经准备好或他们的水已经沸腾的事实，他们会感到沮丧，并将注意力从玩游戏转移到用户界面上，以确保他们不会错过更多通知——这很可能会导致参与度和乐趣的丧失。
As stated earlier, every such state change—the action of every behavior on a part in your game—should be accompanied by some feedback notification to the player. If a change is not relevant to the player and thus not worthy of feedback, you need to examine whether the change is necessary for the game. Does the player need to know about the state (and the change in state) of that part to improve their mental model of the game? Some feedback can be subtle, such as the slow filling of a thermometer bar to show change over time, but full state changes, such as when a building is finished being constructed and can now be used, requires more emphatic notification. If the player misses the fact that their army is ready or their water is boiling, they will be frustrated and move their attention from playing the game to focusing on its user interface to make sure they don’t miss more notifications—and this may well result in a loss of engagement and enjoyment.
数量、时间和理解
如果你怀疑玩家是否会因为在任意时刻有如此多的变化和反馈而感到视觉和听觉混乱，那么你就需要考虑你的游戏在任意时刻的变化量，以及你如何使用玩家的互动预算。如果你正在制作一款快节奏的游戏，其中有很多内容，并且只有快速动作/反馈互动，那么你就可以用反馈来刺激玩家的感官。这是许多快节奏游戏的吸引力和挑战。然而，如果你的游戏更多的是关于策略、关系或社交，这可能表明你需要削减游戏中的部分和行为数量，以让玩家保持互动性并将注意力集中在你想要的地方。
If you question whether a player will be met with visual and auditory chaos because there is so much changing and so much feedback being offered at any given time, then you need to consider the amount of change in your game at any given time and how you are using the player’s interactivity budget. If you are creating a fast-action game with lots going on and only fast action/feedback interactivity, then you can afford to be assaulting the player’s senses with feedback. This is the appeal and challenge of many fast-action games. If, however, your game is more about strategy, relationships, or socialization, this may be a sign that you need to pare back the number of parts and behaviors in your game to allow the player to keep their interactivity and focus where you want it to be.
反馈的时间也很重要。一般来说，反馈需要立即进行。如第 4 章“互动性和趣味性”中所述，“立即”意味着反馈需要在发生变化后不超过 100 到 250 毫秒内呈现给玩家。在大约四分之一秒到一秒之间，反馈似乎会滞后得令人讨厌（再次降低玩家的参与度），如果反馈在事件或变化发生后延迟超过一秒，玩家可能根本不会将其与状态变化联系起来。
Timing of feedback is also important. In general, feedback needs to be immediate. As discussed in Chapter 4, “Interactivity and Fun,” “immediate” means feedback needs to be presented to the player no more than 100 to 250 milliseconds after a change has occurred. Between about a quarter of a second and a second, the feedback will seem to have lagged annoyingly (again reducing the player’s engagement), and if the feedback is delayed by more than about a second after an event or a change, the player may not associate it with the state change at all.
除了即时性之外，反馈还需要能够立即理解其与底层状态变化之间的联系。也就是说，你不能指望玩家通过你提供的晦涩符号组合来理解他们看到的反馈。例如，你不能指望玩家理解屏幕左上角出现的蓝色火焰意味着水在沸腾，因为人们将蓝色与水联系在一起，而火焰看起来像热量，所以两者结合起来指的是沸水。这太晦涩了，需要玩家进行太多的思考。请记住，玩家是在玩游戏，而不是玩用户界面（或游戏规则），你希望他们保持对游戏的参与度。
In addition to being immediate, feedback needs to be instantly understandable in its connection to the underlying state change. That is, you cannot expect the player to reason through obscure combinations of symbols that you provide to understand the feedback they are seeing. For example, you cannot expect that a player will understand that the appearance of a blue flame in the upper-left corner of their screen means that their water is boiling because people associate blue with water, and a flame looks like heat, so together that refers to boiling water. That’s far too obscure and requires way too much thinking from the player. Remember that the player is trying to play the game, not play the user interface (or the game rules), and you want them to stay engaged with the game.
一般来说，只要给出“此部分的状态已更改”的反馈就足够了，而且应该能立即识别出来。对于大多数反馈来说，文字是一种糟糕的媒介，同样是因为玩家的注意力集中在游戏上，而不是用户界面上。游戏设计师有时会用“人们不阅读”来表达这一点。虽然这是一种夸张的说法，但它的准确性令人惊讶：如果某人沉迷于游戏，他们通常不会阅读（甚至可能不会阅读）您应该将您作为设计师认为非常明显的文本反馈（即有意识地看到的文本反馈）保留下来。即使在您包含符号信息的情况下（例如，在角色头顶上漂浮的数字，表示他们受到的伤害程度），颜色和动作也比具体数量更重要。对于需要更多关注或推理的反馈，请将其分开（例如，在对话框或单独的窗口中），让玩家按照自己的节奏进行处理。尽可能暂停游戏，直到他们吸收了您提供的复杂信息。
Generally, feedback that indicates “the state of this part has changed” is enough and should be instantly recognizable as such. Text is a poor medium for most feedback, again because the player’s focus is on the game, not on the user interface. The short way that game designers sometimes put this is that “people don’t read.” While this is an overstatement, it’s amazing how accurate it is: if someone is engaged in a game, they will often not read (and may not even consciously see) text feedback that you as the designer believe to be completely obvious. Even in situations where you include symbolic information—such as numbers floating off above the head of a character, indicating how much damage they’re taking—it’s more the color and motion than the specific quantity that is important. For feedback that requires more focus or reasoning, section it off (for example, in a dialog box or separate window) and let the player work through it at their own pace. Pause the game if at all possible until they have absorbed the complex tangle of information you have given them.
最后，要不惜一切代价避免提供误导性或无意义的反馈。如果游戏中燃放烟花，请确保它们有意义：不要让它们随机燃放或在不同情况下指示不同类型的状态变化。您可以将这种反馈用于几乎任何您想要的行为，只要它是明显的、即时的并且使用一致。同样，有时您会希望在游戏中使用动画或声音来帮助让世界变得生动，但您应该小心这样做，不要将它们与某些潜在的状态变化联系起来，即使这种变化微不足道。玩家会将几乎任何视觉和听觉反馈解释为有意义的东西，他们会尝试找到这种意义并将其添加到他们的心理模型中。如果这些变化不是真正的反馈，如果它们没有意义，那么它们实际上就是噪音，会分散玩家的注意力并降低他们的参与度。
Finally, avoid at all costs providing misleading or nonsensical feedback. If fireworks go off in your game, make sure they mean something: do not have them go off randomly or to indicate different kinds of state changes in different situations. You can use this kind of feedback for almost any behavior that you want, as long as it’s obvious, immediate, and used consistently. In the same way, sometimes you will want to use animations or sounds in your game to help bring the world to life, but you should be careful about doing so without tying these to some underlying state change, even if it’s a trivial one. Players will interpret almost any visual and auditory feedback as meaning something, and they will try to find this meaning and add it to their mental models. If the changes aren’t really feedback, if they don’t mean something, then they are effectively noise that distracts players and reduces their engagement.
回到航海示例
Back to the Nautical Example
在之前定义了航海时代游戏中船只、船员和船长等部分属性之后，您还需要设计每个部分的行为。船只会移动、攻击，并且可能受到其他船只的伤害。船只还需要做其他事情吗？您需要在早期设计中决定这一点，尽管您可以在游戏测试期间（并且会）修改这些决定，因为您会发现之前没有看到的游戏方面。
Having earlier defined some of the attributes for parts like ships, crew, and captains in your age of sail naval game, you also need to design each part’s behaviors. Ships move, attack, and presumably take damage from other ships. Are there other things a ship needs to do? You need to decide this in your early design, though you can (and will) revise such decisions during playtesting as you discover aspects of the game you didn’t see before.
您之前已决定船长和船员对船只的航行和战斗做出贡献。这构成了船长和船员部分行为的基础；它们是他们与船只在游戏中互动的功能，并有助于构建导航和战斗系统。（随着设计的进展，您可能会添加更多船员行为，但您可以从这些行为开始。）
You decided earlier that captains and crew contribute to how the ship sails and fights. This forms the basis of some of the captain’s and crew’s behaviors; they are the functions for how they and ship interact as parts in the game and help construct the navigation and combat systems. (The crew may have more behaviors that you add as the design progresses, but you can start with these.)
指定每个行为最终归结为一个公式或逻辑，您将定义并迭代以达到最佳效果。这种逻辑将成为游戏规则，无论是以人类可以计算的桌面游戏方式表达，还是以计算机运行的数字游戏代码形式表达。
Specifying each behavior ultimately comes down to a formula or logic that you will define and iterate on to get just right. This logic will become the rules for the game, whether expressed in ways that humans can compute for a tabletop game or in terms of code that the computer runs for a digital game.
例如，在定义舰船的攻击行为时，指定每个行为主要归结为舰船的攻击属性（目前定义为可用大炮的数量），由船员修改。您还决定让船长影响舰船的战斗力——但可能不是直接影响。为了创建联锁系统，并使船长部分的行为更加本地化，船长有一种行为可以增加奖励（或减去！）船员士气：此行为基于船长的领导力属性。您可以在船员部分中创建一个名为“战斗”的行为，该行为使用船员的属性值（船员人数、当前士气（受船长的领导力影响）和训练（受玩家之前花费的金钱影响）的组合来对船只的攻击行为进行修改（见图8.2）。这听起来很复杂，但如果沟通得当，它将很容易融入玩家的心理模型中。
For example, in defining the ship’s attack behavior, specifying each behavior mainly comes down to the ship’s attack attribute (defined for now as its number of usable cannons), as modified by the crew. You’ve also decided that you want the ship’s captain to affect how well the ship fights—but maybe not directly. As a way to create interlocking systems, and to keep the captain part’s behaviors more local, the captain has a behavior that adds a bonus (or minus!) to the crew’s morale: this behavior is based on the Leadership attribute on the captain part. You can create a behavior called “fight” within the crew part that uses a combination of the crew’s attribute values—how many crew members there are, their current morale (affected by the captain’s leadership), and their training (affected by money the player has previously spent)—to create a modifier on the ship’s attack behavior (see Figure 8.2). This sounds complex, but if communicated well, it will be easily incorporated into the player’s mental model.
图 8.2船长的领导力对船员的影响，影响他们在船上的战斗力。 有一个暂定的连接返回，用于提高船长的领导力，如文中所述
Figure 8.2 The effect the captain’s leadership has on the crew, which affects their fighting ability on the ship. There is a tentative connection return for improving the captain’s leadership, as explained in the text
对于舰船的攻击值，您需要创建一个加权函数，这样如果舰船有大量大炮但船员很少，舰船的攻击修正值就会很低（没有船员，大炮就无法开火）。如果舰船有很多船员但士气或训练不佳，或者舰船有一位优秀的船长和一支强大而快乐的船员但大炮很少，情况也是如此。但是，如果舰船有一位强大的船长、众多热心的船员和许多大炮，它的攻击力就会很强。这些条件表明，您可以创建一个公式或一组逻辑函数，以确定每个条件如何影响舰船的战斗能力、玩家如何与每个条件交互，以及战斗系统的攻击修正值的可能范围。这可能会导致舰船部分的辅助属性，例如用于确定大炮、船员和船长相对于彼此的重要性的加权系数。在玩游戏时反复调整此值将帮助您找到所需的平衡，如第 9 章所述。
For the ship’s attack value, you need to create a weighted function such that if the ship has plenty of cannon but few crew members, the ship’s attack modifier will be low (cannon cannot fire without crew). The same is true if the ship has lots of crew but they have poor morale or training, or if the ship has a great captain and a strong and happy crew but few cannon. However, if the ship has a strong captain, hearty and numerous crew, and lots of cannon, its attack will be strong. These conditions suggest a formula or set of logical functions that you can create to determine how each one affects the ship’s fighting capability, how the player interacts with each, and the possible range of attack modifier values for the combat system. This may lead to subsidiary attributes on the ship part, such as the coefficient for weighting to determine how much the cannon, crew, and captain matter relative to each other. Iteratively adjusting this value as you play the game will help you find the balance you want, as discussed in Chapter 9.
创建船舶航行系统的过程与此类似，但其中还涉及外部风变量。风已在之前添加到部件列表中，并带有方向和强度属性。这对于游戏的航行部分来说是否足够详细？这是一个需要您回答的问题，它如何影响游戏体验。
A similar process goes into creating the ship’s sailing system, but that also involves the external wind variable. The wind was added to the list of parts earlier, with attributes for direction and intensity. Is that enough detail for the sailing part of the game? That’s a question for you to answer in terms of how it affects the gameplay experience.
在此阶段，您已经可以有效地标记您开始使用的游戏概念，确定具有特定部分、属性和行为的游戏概念，从而创建所需的系统。您需要尽快在早期原型中测试和调整整个设计，因为您肯定不会从一开始就获得正确的所有部分、属性和行为。您还需要记录您的部件设计，如本章后面所述。
At this stage of the process, you’re off to a good start on effectively tokenizing the game concept you started with, nailing down the gameplay concepts with specific parts, attributes, and behaviors that create the systems you need. You need to test and tweak this whole design in early prototypes as quickly as you can, as you will certainly not get all the parts, attributes, and behaviors correct from the start. You also need to document your parts design, as discussed later in this chapter.
创建循环系统
Creating Looping Systems
在此处讨论的示例中，每个部分都通过其自身行为影响其他部分，这些行为在组织和效果上是局部的，在与其他部分的连接方式上是通用的，并为玩家提供充足的反馈。创建系统效果所需的最后一个元素是行为在各部分之间形成反馈回路，而不是仅线性运行。这意味着每个部分都应该影响其他部分并受到其他部分的影响。
In the examples discussed here, each of the parts affects others via its own behaviors that are local in organization and effect and generic in how they connect to other parts and that provide ample feedback to the player. The final element that is needed for creating systemic effects is for the behaviors to form feedback loops between the parts rather than only operating linearly. This means that each part should both affect and be affected by other parts.
在我们之前的航海示例中，我们简要讨论了船只相互战斗的想法，其攻击力取决于每艘船有多少门大炮、船员的数量和质量以及船长的领导能力。当船只受到损坏时，它们会失去一些船员和/或大炮，而剩余的船员会士气低落。这降低了船只反击的能力；两艘船形成了一个平衡的生态循环（相互交换“伤害”资源并根据需要减少自己的船员和大炮）。
In our earlier nautical example, we discussed briefly the idea that ships would fight each other, with their attack strength being based on how many working cannons each ship has, the number and quality of their crew, and the captain’s ability to lead. When ships take damage, they lose some crew and/or cannon, and the remaining crew lose morale. This reduces the ship’s ability to attack back as strongly as before; the two ships form a balancing ecological loop (exchanging the “damage” resource with each other and reducing their own crew and cannon as needed).
然而，船长对舰船战斗力的贡献是单向的。虽然效果不错，但无助于在游戏中建立动态系统。但是，如果船员有某种方式（直接或间接）反过来影响船长，那么就会形成一个循环，游戏对玩家来说会变得更有趣。也许如果船员的士气在战斗结束时仍然很高，船长就会在经济强化循环中获得额外的领导力（用士气换取领导力）。或者也许更长期的循环更有意义，这样船长只有在赢得一定数量的战斗后才能获得领导力。船长必须成功才能获得这一好处，而这种好处有助于船长在未来取得更大的成功——这是一种典型的进步系统。
However, the captain’s contribution to how well the ship fights is a one-way connection. It works well but doesn’t help build a dynamic system in the game. However, if the crew has some way—directly or indirectly—to affect the captain in return, then a loop has formed, and the game becomes more interesting for the player. Perhaps if the crew’s morale remains high at the end of a combat, the captain gains additional leadership in an economic reinforcing loop (trading Morale for Leadership). Or maybe a longer-term loop makes more sense, such that captains gain Leadership only after winning a certain number of battles. The captain has to be successful to gain this benefit, and the benefit helps the captain be more successful in the future—a typical progression system.
任何游戏中都存在许多此类循环的可能性。作为设计师，您需要确保各部分相互影响以形成循环，并且各部分的行为与玩家形成交互循环。特别重要的是，游戏中的关键部分通过彼此之间以及与玩家之间的交互来帮助推动游戏的核心循环。在这种情况下，玩家在战斗中每时每刻的选择都会对船长、船员和船只产生直接影响。此外，玩家关于在船上安排哪位船长、船上有多少船员以及在火炮和维护上花费多少钱的决定都会影响战斗的结果以及船长和船员的长期变化。
There are many possibilities for loops like this in any game. You as the designer need to make sure that parts affect each other to form loops and that the parts’ behaviors form interactive loops with the player. Of particular importance is that the key parts in the game help drive the game’s core loops by their interactions with each other and the player. In this case, the player’s moment-by-moment choices during a battle have an immediate effect on the captain, crew, and ship. In addition, the player’s decisions about which captain to place on a ship, how many crew to have on the ship, and how much money to spend on cannons and maintenance all affect the outcomes of battles and the longer-term changes in the captain and crew.
当你查看游戏中定义的部分时，检查以确保每个部分都会影响某些部分，并且也会受到这些部分或其他部分的影响。每个部分不需要影响所有其他部分或受其影响；构建这种心理模型将非常困难。但如果每个部分都会影响其他部分，并反过来受到这些部分或其他部分的影响（局部且组织水平大致相同），那么您的游戏中就开始出现循环系统了。使用第 7 章中描述的引擎、经济和生态模板将帮助您绘制这些循环。还要记住，游戏中的每个部分都可能是原子的，也可能有自己的系统循环。这就是您在游戏中构建层次结构和深度的方式，从而增加玩家的参与度。
As you look over the parts you have defined in your game, check to make sure that every part both affects some parts and is affected by them or others as well. Every part doesn’t need to affect all others or be affected by them; the mental model for that would be very difficult to construct. But if every part affects a few others and is in turn affected by those or by others (locally and at about the same level of organization), you have the beginnings of looping systems in your game. Using the templates described in Chapter 7 for engines, economies, and ecologies will help you map out these loops. Remember, too, that every part in the game may be atomic, or it may have its own systemic loops within it. This is how you build hierarchy and depth in the game and, thus, increased engagement for the player.
不要迷失在杂草或云层中
Don’t Get Lost in the Weeds or the Clouds
讨论了零件、属性、值和行为之后，退一步将所有这些视为设计过程是很有用的。不同类型的设计师（讲故事的人、发明家和玩具制造商）对设计过程的不同阶段感到很自在。但是，无论您喜欢哪个领域，您都需要在设计的组织层次上上下移动，从高概念到零件属性的具体数值，而不会失去整体视野。专注于一个层次而不失去对其他层次的关注可能很困难，如果其中一个层次不是您最舒服的位置，这可能会特别困难。
Having discussed parts, attributes, values, and behaviors, it’s useful to take a step back and look at all this as a design process. Different kinds of designers—storytellers, inventors, and toymakers—feel at home in different stages of the design process. However, no matter which of those areas you prefer, you need to move up and down the organizational levels of your design from high concept to specific numerical values for attributes on parts without losing your overall view. It can be difficult to focus on one level without losing track of the others, and this can be especially difficult if one of these levels isn’t your most comfortable place.
如果您更像一个高级故事叙述设计师，那么定义部件的属性和行为有时会让人感到畏惧或像苦差事。务必要脚踏实地，明确您的游戏设计，因为这是让游戏成为现实的唯一途径。另一方面，如果您更擅长处理属性和行为的清晰想法以及它们如何组合在一起，那么处理游戏概念可能会让人觉得不必要地模糊。然而，有必要抛开精确细节的世界，确保所有细节真正结合起来形成令人愉快的东西。您的游戏需要有一个连贯的概念，而不仅仅是一堆零件拼凑在一起，希望它们能带来乐趣。并非每款游戏都需要完全真实或各种各样的零件；战略游戏中一种弹射器单元可能很好，但五种就不行，而其他游戏中三种花朵或发型或城堡旗帜可能就足够了。如果您觉得定义零件很有趣，那么不要过度定义零件，希望能够创造连贯的体验。
If you are more of a high-level storyteller designer, defining the attributes and behaviors for parts can sometimes feel daunting or like drudgery. It’s important to come down to Earth and nail down your game design, as this is the only way it becomes real. On the other hand, if you’re more at home in dealing with clear ideas for attributes and behaviors and how they fit together, working on the game concept can feel unnecessarily nebulous. It’s necessary, however, to leave behind the world of precise detail and make sure that all the details actually combine to form something enjoyable. Your game needs to have a cohesive concept and not just be a bunch of parts flung together in the hopes that they make something fun. Not every game requires full realism or a wide variety of parts; one kind of catapult unit in a strategy game may be fine but not five, and three kinds of flowers or hairstyles or castle banners may be enough in other games. If defining parts is what you find enjoyable, don’t overdo this as a way to hopefully create a coherent experience.
换句话说，要记住每个游戏都必须具有完全定义的部分、属性和行为；没有它们，游戏就无法运行。但这些部分的存在是为了构建循环并支持玩家的感知、认知、社交、情感和文化互动，从而创造您作为设计师试图实现的游戏体验。游戏与零件不同，而是由零件之间以及零件与玩家之间的互动所产生的结果所创造的。除非您成功创建（并反复测试）特定于电子表格的部分，否则您不会获得这些互动，但仅仅拥有这些部分并不能成就游戏。
Another way to say this is to remember that every game has to have fully defined parts, attributes, and behaviors; no game functions without them. But those parts exist to construct loops and support the perceptual, cognitive, social, emotional, and cultural interactivity in the player that creates the game experience that you as a designer are trying to enable. The game isn’t the same as the parts but is created by what emerges out of the interactions of the parts with each other and with the player. You don’t get those interactions unless you have successfully created (and iteratively tested) spreadsheet-specific parts, but just having the parts won’t make the game.
和所有系统性事物一样，你必须同时看到整体和部分。你需要在部分的层面上进行操作，同时又不失去整体概念，才能整个事情都有效。作为设计师循环的一部分，你必须能够在游戏设计中上下移动抽象和组织的层次，确保概念清晰，系统支持它，并且各个部分能够为玩家提供有趣、有意义的互动和进步。
As with everything else that’s systemic, you have to see the whole and the parts at the same time. You need to operate at the level of the parts while not losing the overall concept to make the whole thing work. As part of the designer’s loop, you have to be able to move up and down the levels of abstraction and organization in your game design, making sure that the concept is clear, the systems support it, and the parts enable interesting, meaningful interactions and progression for the player.
记录你的详细设计
Documenting Your Detailed Design
在前面的章节中，我们讨论了记录游戏的概念和系统设计。游戏的详细设计（零件、属性、值和行为的描述）中的细节至关重要。这定义了你的游戏是什么、为什么，以及如何实现它。
In earlier chapters, we discussed documenting your game’s concept and system designs. It is with your game’s detailed design—the description of the parts, attributes, values, and behaviors—that the specifics become crucial. This is what defines what your game is and why, as well as how it is to be implemented.
入门和总体结构
Getting Started and Overall Structure
当您开始确定游戏的部件和属性时，它们可能存在于白板或文本文档中，这样您就可以记录它们并按某种顺序存在。随着列表开始成形，并且随着您继续处理部件、它们的属性和它们的值，您将需要将这些信息转移到文本设计文档和电子表格中。
When you begin figuring out the parts and attributes for your game, they may live on a whiteboard or in a text document, just so you have them recorded and exist in some order. As the list begins to take shape, and as you continue working with the parts, their attributes, and their values, you will want to transfer this information to textual design documents and spreadsheets.
文本文档以足够精确的方式保存了您对游戏中各个部件的意图，以便能够在编程或模拟游戏规则中实现。电子表格是有关游戏中各个部件的属性和值的所有具体信息（尤其是数字信息）的所在地。除了记录设计细节之外，电子表格文档还使您能够快速测试和迭代游戏，如以下部分所述。
The text documents preserve your intent for the parts in the game in a way that is precise enough to be implementable in programming or analog game rules. The spreadsheets are the home for all the specific, especially numeric, information about the attributes and values for parts in the game. In addition to capturing the particulars of your design, your spreadsheet documentation also enables you to rapidly test and iterate on your game, as described in the following sections.
详细设计文档
Detailed Design Documents
为了充分描述游戏在部件、属性、值和行为层面的细节，请编写一组设计文档，详细说明游戏的所有细节。这包括设计原理和可以转换为代码（或游戏规则，如果玩家扮演计算机）的特定行为描述。这可以保留您的意图（为什么每个部分都很重要）并提供每个部分如何实现的技术定义。
To adequately describe the details of your game at the level of parts, attributes, values, and behaviors, write a set of design documents that specify everything about the details of your game. This includes the design rationale and a specific behavioral description that can be turned into code (or into game rules, if the player is acting as the computer). This preserves your intent (why each part is important) and provides a technical definition of how each is to be implemented.
虽然这些文档必然包含游戏各部分的文字描述，但您应尽可能使用图片、图表、流程模型、模型等。链接到外部模型和原型也是一个好主意，这样读者就可以快速了解游戏应该如何在详细但实用的层面上运作。
While these documents necessarily contain textual descriptions of your game’s parts, you should use pictures, diagrams, flow models, mockups, and so on wherever possible. Linking to external mockups and prototypes is also an excellent idea so that the reader can quickly understand how the game is supposed to operate at a detailed but functional level.
坚定而精准
在具体性方面，将零件级详细设计文档视为建筑物的蓝图。准确描述设计的各个方面。避免含糊其辞，用现在时态陈述设计的各个方面（游戏的行为方式，而不是“游戏将如何表现”）。避免使用“游戏可能会”之类的含糊其辞的词语。此文档是您以明确的术语（您可以随时返回并根据需要进行更改）对游戏进行定位的地方。除了描述设计的高级方面时，不要使用定性短语，例如“这个敌人移动得很快”或“这会导致大爆炸”或“这个炮塔左右转动”。
In terms of specificity, treat your parts-level detailed design documents like the blueprints for a building. Be precise in describing all aspects of the design. Avoid being vague and state aspects of the design in present tense (the game behaves this way, not “the game will behave”). Avoid waffling words like “the game might.” This documentation is where you stake out the game in no uncertain terms (that you can always come back and change as needed). Except when describing high-level aspects of the design, do not use qualitative phrases like “this enemy moves fast” or “this results in a big explosion” or “this turret turns left and right.”
多快？多大？多远？每当需要数量时（技能或等级数量、伤害量等），请在本文档或随附的电子表格中提供一个数字、定义范围或引用方程式或其他决定因素。如果尚未就特定数字或范围做出决定，请说明这一点并将其作为需要解决的问题。在写作中保持精确会迫使您消除可能伴随完全在脑海中的设计的模糊性。讨论和发现提案中的漏洞比讨论想法要容易得多。
How fast? How big? How far? Whenever a quantity is called for (number of skills or levels, amount of damage, and so on), supply a number, a defined range, or a reference to an equation or another determining factor in this document or in the accompanying spreadsheet. If a decision on a specific number or range has not yet been made, say so and call it out as an issue to be resolved. Being precise in your writing forces you to eliminate the fuzziness that can accompany a design that is all in your head. It is far easier to discuss and find the holes in a proposal than an idea.
但要避免过度
话虽如此，创建过多的设计文档与创建过少的设计文档一样会对您的游戏造成不利影响。如果您了解游戏某个部分的细节，请使用图表、模型、文本等将其记录下来。如果您不确定，请记录您要创建的内容、关于如何实现它的最佳想法以及您已放弃的路径 — 然后创建原型（纸质或电子）来测试这些想法。不要浪费时间记录大量不同的选项，更不要争论它们：找到不确定的领域并对其进行原型设计。然后，一旦您想要走的路明确了，就记录下来并说明您选择它的原因。
All that said, creating too much design documentation can be as detrimental to your game as creating too little. If you know the details of a part of the game, document it using diagrams, mockups, text, and so on. If you’re not sure, document what you’re trying to create, your best ideas for how to do it, and what paths you’ve discarded—and then create prototypes (paper or electronic) to test the ideas. Don’t waste time documenting a lot of different options, much less arguing about them: find the area of uncertainty and prototype it. Then once the path you want to take is clear, document that and why you chose it.
与其他设计文档一样，最好将这些文档以易于共享、链接、评论和编辑的格式发布在网上（使用更改跟踪，这样您就知道谁在何时编辑了文档，从而可以撤销更改）。详细的设计文档应根据需要相互链接并与系统和概念文档链接，以形成一个有凝聚力的整体设计。您还应考虑为特定系统制作大型、可见的单页设计图，以便不同的团队成员可以看到它们并将其作为设计的一部分进行内化。总的来说，您要避免使用庞大而晦涩难懂的“设计圣经”，而是要创建一套易于理解的参考资料，以便您和团队中的其他人（艺术家、程序员等）在实施和测试期间可以参考。
As with other design documents, it is best if these live online in a format that can be easily shared, linked to, commented on, and edited (with change tracking so you know who edited the docs when and so changes can be rolled back). The detailed design documents should link both to each other and to the systems and concept documents, as needed, to form a cohesive whole for your design. You should also consider having large, visible single-page design diagrams of particular systems so that different team members can see them and internalize them as part of the design. Overall, you want to avoid having a monolithic and impenetrable “design bible” and instead create a set of easily comprehended references that you and others on your team—artists, programmers, and so on—can reference during implementation and testing.
保持你的文档为最新
任何设计文档只有保持最新状态才是好的。游戏设计通常被称为“动态”文档，因为它们会随着游戏开发的进展而变化。因此，从一开始就计划随着开发的进行更新您的设计。您会发现新的在你制作游戏时，你需要不断更新想法、发现新问题并改变整体设计。如果你忽略了这一点，你很快就会发现，游戏的实现已经偏离了设计初衷，文档也变得过时、误导人，最终变得毫无用处。
Any design documentation is only as good as it is current. Game designs are often referred to as “living” documents, in that they change as the game development progresses. As such, plan from the beginning to update your design as development proceeds. You will find new ideas, uncover new problems, and change the overall design as you make the game. If you let this slip, you will soon find that the game as implemented has drifted from the game as designed, and the documentation has become outdated, misleading, and eventually worse than useless.
电子表格详细信息
Spreadsheet Details
在将零件及其属性值放入电子表格时，典型的用法是将每个零件列在电子表格的一行中，将每个属性列在一列中（见图8.3）。因此，可以通过在零件行的每一列中提供适当的值来定义零件的状态。
In putting parts and their attribute values into a spreadsheet, typical usage is to list each part in a spreadsheet row and each attribute in a column (see Figure 8.3). Thus a part’s state can be defined by supplying the appropriate values in each column on its row.
图 8.3示例电子表格的一部分。每个部件名称列在 A 列中，每个部件的其他属性和值列在 B-D 列中
Figure 8.3 A portion of a sample spreadsheet. Each part name is listed in column A, and the other attributes and values for each part are listed in columns B–D
如果有许多不同种类的部件具有不同的属性（例如，武器、鲜花、汽车、运动队），则它们会列在不同的组中或（更常见的是）不同的工作表中，而同一类型的部件则列在一起。因此，如图8.3所示，你可能有一个电子表格，其中每个部件都列在一个“徒手武器”列表中，其名称在第一列逐行列出，所有部件的共同属性列在后续列中。每个武器属性（攻击、伤害、速度等）都是工作表中该武器行上单元格的一个值。如果远程武器或魔法咒语共享大多数或全部相同的属性，则可以将它们列在同一工作表中，或者它们也可以列在单独的工作表中，并使用自己的属性来定义其内部状态。
If there are many different kinds of parts with disparate attributes (for example, weapons, flowers, cars, sports teams), they are listed in separate groups or (more often) on separate sheets, while parts of the same type are listed together. So, as shown in Figure 8.3, you might have a spreadsheet with each part in a list of “hand-to-hand weapons” listed with its name in the first column, row by row, with the attributes common to all of them listed in subsequent columns. Each weapon attribute—attack, damage, speed, and so on—is a value in a cell on that weapon’s row in the sheet. Ranged weapons or magic spells might be listed on the same sheet if they shared most or all of the same attributes, or they could be listed on a separate sheet with their own attributes defining their internal state.
电子表格中可能还会有一些单元格以数学形式描述每个部分的行为效果。在电子表格中包含指向外部文本和图表描述的零件、属性和行为的指针很有用，这样您和其他利益相关者就可以轻松访问游戏细节的补充描述。
You may also have cells in your spreadsheet that describe the effect of each part’s behavior in mathematical form. It’s useful to include pointers in the spreadsheet to external text-and-diagram descriptions of the parts, attributes, and behaviors so that you and other stakeholders can easily access complementary descriptions of the details of your game.
超越属性和价值
电子表格中可以轻松解决的一个非数字问题是部件的命名。在许多情况下，游戏中的某个部件可能有多个名称：屏幕上的名称、内部方便的参考名称，以及内容（艺术、声音等）文件的文件或目录名称。详细的电子表格是列出这些名称的最佳位置，并且将这些信息保存在电子表格中将有助于最终的本地化，因为屏幕上的名称可以用其他语言中的等效名称替换。此外，还可以在这里处理必须由数字游戏程序读取的与部件相关的文件的内部命名方案的分配和维护。虽然没有必要在一开始就解决这个问题，但有一个明确的标准来命名各种文件，并严格遵循该标准并在电子表格中显示出来，这将为任何规模的项目省去巨大的麻烦。让程序员、设计师和艺术家随意命名文件无异于自找麻烦，最有可能遇到的情况是，您没有时间去理清某个文件为什么被这样命名，而没人能记得是怎么回事。
A nonnumeric issue that can easily be taken care of in spreadsheets is the naming of parts. In many cases, a part in a game may have several names: an onscreen name, an internal handy reference name, and potentially a file or directory name for content (art, sound, and so on) files. A detailed spreadsheet is a great place to list each of these, and keeping this information in a spreadsheet will help with eventual localization, since the onscreen name can be replaced with its equivalent in other languages. In addition, assigning and maintaining internal naming schemes for files associated with parts that must be read in by a digital game’s program can be handled here, too. While it isn’t necessary to work this out right at the start, having a single defined standard for how you name various files that is followed scrupulously and shown in the spreadsheet will save immense headaches on a project of any size. Letting programmers, designers, and artists name the files whatever they want is a recipe for disaster, one that you’re most likely to encounter when you have no time to untangle why a particular file is named as it is when no one can remember how that happened.
在详细设计中有效使用电子表格的另一个技巧是使用颜色格式来提高可读性。您可以使用单元格背景颜色和类似方法来区分零件名称、全局系数、不应更改的数字等等。任何能增强人们理解大型复杂电子表格组织能力的东西都是大有帮助的。
Another pointer for effective use of spreadsheets in detailed design involves using color formatting for enhancing readability. You can use cell-background color and similar means to differentiate part names, global coefficients, numbers that should not be changed, and so on. Anything that enhances the ability for someone to understand the organization of a large, complex spreadsheet is a big help.
同样，在单元格上使用注释来记录名称或值为何如此是个好主意；这是您正在测试的临时值，还是已经过彻底测试并且现在不应更改的值？在单元格中快速添加注释将帮助您和其他人跟踪这一点。当然，这意味着您必须保持注释和其他格式为最新，因为如果您让它们过时，它们很快就会产生误导。
Similarly, it’s a good idea to use comments on cells to record why a name or value is as it is; is this a temporary value that you’re testing, or is it one that has been thoroughly tested and now should not change? A quick comment in the cell will help you and others keep track of this. Of course, this means you have to keep your comments and other formatting up-to-date, as these can quickly become misleading if you let them slide into obsolescence.
数据驱动设计
最后，将零件、属性和值放入电子表格的最重要用途之一是，您可以在游戏中直接使用这些数据（假设是基于计算机的游戏1）。花点时间创建自动导出到文件格式（如 CSV（逗号分隔值）、JSON 或 XML）非常值得，这样数据就可以直接读入您的游戏中。代码中的游戏对象应该具有默认的初始化值，这些值会被数据文件中的值覆盖，从而使您能够使用数据驱动设计。这使您可以将数据和基于代码的数据结构分开。然后，如果电子表格和设计文档保持最新，以便设计（和电子表格）中的零件和属性与代码中的零件和属性相匹配，设计师就可以尝试新值，而不必更改代码。这可以大大提高迭代设计和测试周期的速度。
Finally, one of the most important uses of putting parts, attributes, and values into a spreadsheet is that you can use this data directly in your game (assuming a computer-based game1). It is well worth taking the time to create automatic exports to file formats such as CSV (comma-separated values), JSON, or XML so that the data can be read into your game directly. The game objects in code should have default initialization values that get overwritten by those in the data file, enabling you to use data-driven design. This enables you to keep your data and your code-based data structures separate. Then, if the spreadsheet and design documents are kept current such that the parts and attributes in the design (and spreadsheet) match up with those in the code, designers can try out new values without having to change the code. This enables you to greatly increase the velocity of your iterative design and test cycles.
您可以（也应该）更进一步，让游戏查找并检查从电子表格导出的数据文件的时间戳，如果时间戳发生变化，则再次读取。这样，您可以在游戏运行时更改游戏数据，以便测试不同的零件属性值。这进一步缩短了您的设计和测试周期，这意味着您可以尝试更多选项，并更快地获得一组可靠的数据。
You can (and should) go one step further and have the game look for and check the timestamp on the data file exported from your spreadsheet and read it in again if it’s changed. This enables you to change your game data while your game is running so you can test different part attribute values. This reduces your design-and-test cycle time still further, meaning you can try out many more options and get to a solid set of data much faster.
关于详细设计需要考虑的问题
Questions to Consider About Your Detailed Design
就像游戏的概念和系统一样，在开发和审查零件、属性、值和行为的详细设计时，您可以评估一些有用的问题。以下是一些示例：
Just as with the game’s concept and systems, there are useful questions you can evaluate as you develop and review your detailed design of parts, attributes, values, and behaviors. The following are some examples:
是否定义了足够的游戏部件来创建游戏的核心循环？它们是否各自具有属性、值、值范围和行为？
Are enough game parts defined to create the game’s core loop? Do they each have attributes, values, value ranges, and behaviors?
所有部件之间以及与玩家之间是否都有显著的互动？所有部件是否都会影响其他部件，同时也会受到影响？
Do all the parts have significant interactions with each other and the player? Do all parts have effects on others while also being affected themselves?
您是否定义了不同类型的部分，包括物理部分、非物理部分和游戏代表部分？
Have you defined different types of parts, including physical, nonphysical, and game-representational ones?
您可以使用哪些最少的状态和行为来构建循环并实现所需的效果？这些是否支持您在游戏中想要的交互和进展路径？
What is the smallest number of states and behaviors you can use to build the loops and achieve the effects you want? Do these support the interactions and progression paths you want in the game?
所有主要部分是否都已充分指定以便实施？它们是否特定于电子表格？
Are all the main parts specified enough to be implemented? Are they spreadsheet specific?
各个部件的行为是否为玩家提供了足够的反馈，以便他们能够了解状态何时发生变化，并使用这些信息来构建他们的心理模型？
Do the behaviors of the parts provide sufficient feedback to the player that they can understand when state changes occur and use this information to build their mental model?
玩家是否有足够的互动？游戏的各个部分是否能让玩家做出有意义的选择？游戏的各个部分是否提供了足够的“旋钮和转盘”让玩家扰乱游戏的内部模型？
Does the player have enough interaction? Do the game’s parts enable meaningful choices the players can make? Do the parts provide sufficient “knobs and dials” for the player to perturb the game’s internal model?
部件的行为效果是否具有局部范围和普遍适用性？是否有部件具有全局影响、具有一次性行为或其他易碎行为，或者超越所有其他部件行为？
Are the behavioral effects of the parts local in scope and general in applicability? Are there any parts that have global effects, that have single-use or otherwise brittle behaviors, or that overtake all other part behaviors?
所有部件、属性和行为是否都已充分记录？您是否有文本和图表设计文档，链接到包含部件属性数据的电子表格？在开发游戏时，是否可以将这些电子表格读入游戏以加快迭代测试？
Are all the parts, attributes, and behaviors adequately documented? Do you have text and diagram design documents that link to spreadsheets containing the part–attribute data? Can these spreadsheets be read into your game as you develop it to speed your iterative testing?
概括
Summary
在指定游戏的部件、属性、值和行为时，您已经达到了游戏设计的最详细级别，也是最扎实的级别。通过有效地设计这些部分，您可以设置系统并支持您希望在游戏中看到的玩家体验。通过用描述性文字和电子表格中的数字记录它们，您可以确保您的游戏完全可实现，并且具体数字支持您的总体设计目标。
In specifying the parts, attributes, values, and behaviors for your game, you have reached the most detailed level of game design—and also the most grounded. By designing these parts effectively, you can set up the systems and support the player experience that you want to see in the game. By documenting them in both descriptive text and numerically in spreadsheets, you can ensure that your game is fully implementable and that the specific numbers support your overall design goals.
在第 9 章中，您将看到如何确保各部分的价值观和行为效果创造出平衡的游戏体验。
In Chapter 9, you will see how to make sure that the values and behavioral effects of the parts create a balanced play experience.
1.即使在模拟游戏中，这种技术也很有用：您可以预先填充卡片的值并将其自动导入布局程序，以大幅减少测试和迭代设计所需的时间。
1. Even in an analog game, this technique is useful: you can prepopulate the values of cards and import them automatically into a layout program to drastically reduce the time it takes to test and iterate the design.
第九章
CHAPTER 9
游戏平衡方法
GAME BALANCE METHODS
仅凭强大的概念和有效的系统构建一款可行的游戏是不够的。你还必须确保游戏形成一个具有动态平衡的有凝聚力的整体。
It is not enough to construct a working game with a strong concept and working systems. You must also make sure the game forms a cohesive whole with dynamic balance.
在本章中，我们将探讨可用于使游戏平衡的基于直觉和定量的方法，以及它们如何与及物和非及物游戏系统一起工作。
In this chapter we explore both intuition-based and quantitative methods you can use to make your game balanced and how they work with both transitive and intransitive game systems.
寻找游戏的平衡
Finding Balance in Your Game
游戏平衡是游戏设计师经常使用的术语，用来表示游戏的玩法。这种平衡是基于游戏中不同部分之间的关系实现的。正如你在第 8 章“定义游戏部分”中看到的，这些关系最终归结为不同部分的属性和值以及它们用于相互影响的行为，从而构成游戏中的部分和系统。
Game balance is a term often used by game designers to indicate how well a game plays. This balance is achieved based on the relationships between different parts in the game. As you saw in Chapter 8, “Defining Game Parts,” those relationships ultimately come down to the attributes and values of different parts and the behaviors they use to affect each other, building up into parts and systems in the game.
尽管游戏平衡的根源在于数字（属性值），但就像游戏玩法中应用的许多其他概念（例如乐趣）一样，平衡很难准确谈论。它包括每个玩家的游戏进程以及整个游戏进程的各个方面：玩家是否进展得太快太轻松，还是进展得太慢且有太多障碍，以及所有玩家是否以大致相同的速度前进，而不会感觉他们彼此步调一致。平衡是整个游戏+玩家系统的属性，因此它结合了玩家的心理模型和游戏模型，涉及心理学、游戏系统以及评估它们所需的数学和其他工具。
Despite the fact that game balance is at its root about numbers (values on attributes), like many other concepts applied to gameplay (such as fun), balance is difficult to talk about with any precision. It includes aspects of the game’s progression for each player and the game’s progression as a whole: whether the player advances too quickly and easily or too slowly with too many impediments and whether all players progress at about the same rate without feeling as if they are in lockstep with each other. Balance is a property of the overall game+player system, so it incorporates the player’s mental model and the game’s model, involving psychology, the game’s systems, and mathematical and other tools needed to evaluate them.
平衡的游戏不会出现单一的主导获胜路径或策略，也不会出现某个玩家拥有固有或不可逾越的优势的情况。平衡的游戏为玩家提供了一个可探索的可能性空间，他们可以在其中做出有意义的决定，并通过朝多个可行的方向发展来构建游戏的心理模型。不存在单一的最佳主导策略，不存在限制可能性空间以使获胜方式显而易见，也不存在事后看来显然最容易获胜的玩法。
A game that is balanced avoids having one narrow dominant winning path or strategy or creating situations where one player has an inherent or insurmountable advantage. A balanced game presents the players with an explorable possibility space within which they can make meaningful decisions and build their mental model of the game by going in multiple viable directions. There is no single best dominant strategy, there is no constricting of the possibility space to make it obvious how to win, and there is not any one way of playing that in retrospect is obviously the easiest way to win.
不平衡的游戏会缩小玩家的决策空间或允许采用占主导地位的策略，从而降低参与度和重玩价值；一旦你知道了获胜的诀窍，为什么还要继续玩呢？另一方面，如果每个玩家都有大致相同的机会，游戏就会感觉公平。一个玩家或另一个玩家可能拥有更多技能或更好的运气（取决于游戏），但如果玩家觉得自己本可以获胜，尤其是如果他们觉得另一个玩家没有抓住游戏中的一些缺陷来为自己谋利，那么即使是没有获胜的玩家也可能会受到鼓励再次尝试。
Having an unbalanced game that narrows the player’s decision space or allows for a dominant strategy reduces engagement and replay value; once you know the trick to winning, why keep playing? On the other hand, if each player has approximately the same opportunities, the game feels fair. One player or another may have more skill or better luck (depending on the game), but if the players feel that they could have won, and especially if they feel that another player did not seize on some imperfection in the game to their own advantage, even players who do not win may be encouraged to try again.
从个人玩家的角度来看，平衡的游戏是指玩家可以冒险并恢复，并且他们不会觉得游戏的结局在很久之前就已经确定的游戏。随着玩家的技能继续与游戏提出的挑战动态匹配，玩家将继续参与游戏并处于第 4 章“互动性和趣味性”中描述的“流动通道”，而不会变得既无聊又简单，也不会令人沮丧。
From the individual player’s point of view, a balanced game is one in which the player can take risks and still recover and in which they don’t feel as though the end of the game is determined long before it arrives. The player remains engaged with the game and in the “flow channel” described Chapter 4, “Interactivity and Fun,” as their skill continues to be dynamically matched by the challenge presented by the game, without becoming either boringly easy or frustratingly hard.
实际上，平衡的游戏就像骑自行车的人：平衡是动态的，而不是静态的，因为骑手会随着路线变化或避开障碍物而改变位置。如果玩家或游戏失去平衡（即，如果玩家陷入无法恢复的失败状态，或者游戏在早期但之后没有达到平衡），这就像骑手失去平衡并摔倒。失去平衡和摔倒对游戏来说并不比对骑自行车的人好。
In effect, a balanced game is like someone riding a bicycle: the balance is dynamic, not static, as the rider shifts position with course changes or to avoid obstacles. If the player or the game loses its balance (that is, if the player falls into an unrecoverable failure state, or if the game turns out to be balanced early on but not later), this is like the rider losing their balance and falling over. Losing balance and falling over is no better for a game than it is for a bicycle rider.
很少有游戏在开发过程中就从一开始就保持平衡；这是设计师循环中应该实现的目标。迭代设计和测试可让您创建复杂但平衡且令人满意的游戏。使用分层、相互关联的系统创建游戏有助于实现这些目标，因为您可以单独平衡每个系统，然后将其作为更高级别系统的一部分，而不必一次性将整个游戏作为一个整体进行平衡。
Few if any games start out balanced while they’re being developed; this is something that you should achieve as part of the designer’s loop. Iterative design and testing allow you to create a complex yet balanced and satisfying game. Creating your game out of hierarchical, interlocking systems helps these efforts, as you can balance each system on its own and then as part of a higher-level system rather than having to balance the whole game at one time as a single block.
虽然游戏平衡很难准确讨论，但你现在对系统游戏设计以及系统如何创造游戏的理解将对此大有裨益。从如何操纵系统中的部件和循环的角度来探讨游戏平衡有助于创造你想要在游戏中看到的效果——平衡的游戏体验。
While game balance is difficult to discuss precisely, the understanding you now have of systemic game design and how systems create games helps with this immensely. Approaching game balance in terms of how you manipulate parts and loops in a system helps create the effect—the balanced gameplay experience—that you want to see in your game.
方法和工具概述
Overview of Methods and Tools
可以使用多种方法来平衡游戏。它们主要分为两大类：定性和启发式或基于直觉和定量和基于数学。传统上，游戏设计师几乎完全依赖第一类，但近年来，后一种方法的使用越来越多。这两种方法都有好处和缺点，你应该把它们看作是互补的，而不是互相排斥的。
Multiple methods can be used to balance a game. They primarily fall into two overall categories: qualitative and heuristic or intuition based and quantitative and mathematics based. Traditionally game designers have depended on the first category almost exclusively, but in recent years, the latter methods have seen increased use. Both have benefits and pitfalls, and you should see them as complementary rather than mutually exclusive.
基于设计师的平衡
Designer-Based Balancing
游戏平衡的第一个主要方法是利用你作为游戏设计师的直觉。对很多人来说，这一直是成为一名优秀设计师的核心部分。你能分辨出一款游戏“感觉对了吗”吗？与其他形式的创意媒体（如书籍和电影）一样，不同的游戏设计师对游戏设计和平衡有不同的看法。你可能会喜欢或不喜欢一款游戏，但这并不意味着这款游戏制作拙劣或不平衡；它只是可能不适合你。这种说法有一定道理：有些游戏，如《黑暗之魂》和《超级食肉哥》，被认为极其困难，并不符合每个人的口味。作为设计师，你需要开发一套设计启发式方法和直觉，了解玩家会喜欢什么。在许多情况下，你至少在设计过程的早期就必须依赖这种判断形式，并且在使用其他方法时也可以再次使用这种判断形式。
The first main method of game balancing is using your intuition as a game designer. For many people, this has long been a core part of what makes a good designer. Can you tell when a game “feels right?” As with other forms of creative media, such as books and movies, different game designers have different opinions about game design and balance. You may or may not enjoy a game, but that doesn’t mean the game was poorly made or unbalanced; it just may not be your kind of game. There is some validity to this: some games, like Dark Souls and Super Meat Boy, are seen as being extremely difficult and not to everyone’s taste. As a designer, you need to develop a set of design heuristics and an intuitive feel for what your players will enjoy. In many cases, you will have to rely on this form of judgment at least early in the design process, and you can return to it as you use other methods as well.
对设计师直觉的警告
虽然对游戏设计和平衡问题有良好的感觉是有价值的，但它也可能让你大错特错。几乎没有游戏设计师能够设计出一个第一次就运行良好的主要系统或游戏，而无需进行任何重大更改。如果（当）你创建了一个看起来很漂亮的游戏，但结果却完全无法玩，请不要灰心；这对每个游戏和设计师来说都是如此。当你无法让游戏中某些部分的值发挥作用时，不要太失望；基于启发式的设计只能带你走这么远。
While having a good feel for game design and balance issues is valuable, it can also lead you horribly wrong. Few if any game designers ever design a major system or a game that works right the first time without any significant changes. If (when) you create a game that looks beautiful to you and turns out to be entirely, unplayably broken, don’t lose heart; this happens for every game and designer. And don’t be too disappointed when you just can’t get the values on some parts in your game to work; heuristic-based design can take you only so far.
比你被个人直觉误导更糟糕的是，你的设计陷入停滞，团队内部因为对设计应该朝哪个方向发展有不同的看法而紧张。不幸的是，人们经常会因为直觉而争论几个小时或几天，而这个问题可以通过快速原型的构建和测试在更短的时间内得到解决。当你过度关注设计的某个部分时，很容易陷入这种争论；游戏设计师的纪律之一就是使用其他工具来解决这些争论。
Worse even than being led astray by personal intuition yourself is to have your design grind to a halt and see tensions rise within the team due to competing feelings about which way the design should go. It’s unfortunately common to see people argue for hours or days, based on their intuition about a design question that could be resolved in much less time by building and testing a fast prototype. This arguing is an easy trap to fall into when you are hyperfocused on a part of your design; part of the discipline of being a game designer is to cut off such arguments by using other tools to resolve them.
尽管如此，游戏设计启发法和直觉并非毫无价值。对游戏设计有良好感觉的价值在于，你经常可以看到不同属性或部分之间的某种关系如何有助于创造你想要的游戏体验。这还可以帮助你决定何时继续沿着一条特定的路径前进，或者知道何时止损并尝试不同的方式。这些设计师启发法和直觉是多年来在开发许多游戏的过程中学到的，但与此同时，没有一个明智的设计师会完全信任它们。这就是为什么我们开发了更好的方法和工具，让我们超越设计师对如何制作一款好的、平衡的游戏的愿景。
All that said, game design heuristics and intuition are not worthless. The value of having a good feel for game design is that you can often see how a certain relationship between different attributes or parts helps create the gameplay experience you want to see. This can also help you decide when to continue down a particular path or know when to cut your losses and try going a different way. These designer heuristics and hunches are learned over years and while developing many games, but at the same time, no wise designer trusts them completely. This is why we have developed better methods and tools that take us beyond the designer’s vision for what makes a good, balanced game.
基于玩家的平衡
Player-Based Balancing
另一种直觉平衡不仅限于游戏设计师，还包括玩家。这是之前讨论的设计师循环的完美例子：玩家与游戏互动，然后设计师与互动结果互动，从而改变游戏。
The other kind of intuitive balancing moves beyond just the game designer and includes the players. This is a perfect instance of the designer’s loop discussed earlier: the player interacts with the game, and then the designer interacts with the result of that interaction to change the game.
这种方法的核心是游戏测试：让玩家在你设计游戏时玩你的游戏并汇报他们的体验。这是确保游戏设计可靠和游戏平衡性最重要的技术之一，你应该大量使用。（我们在第 12 章“让你的游戏更真实”中更详细地讨论了游戏测试。）
The heart of this method is playtesting: having players play your game while you are designing it and report back on their experience. This is one of the most important techniques for ensuring solid game design and effectively balanced gameplay, and one you should use liberally. (We discuss playtesting in more detail in Chapter 12, “Making Your Game Real.”)
关于玩家直觉的警告
游戏测试非常有价值，应该成为每个游戏设计师的工具集的一部分，但它并不是万能的。一些游戏设计师（或应该更了解情况的游戏公司高管）将游戏测试发挥到了看似合乎逻辑的程度，并试图让玩家成为设计师。如果你问玩家他们对游戏的看法，为什么不直接问他们想要什么游戏并让他们设计呢？
Playtesting is extremely valuable and should be part of every game designer’s tool set, but it is not a cure-all. Some game designers (or game company executives who should know better) take playtesting to its seemingly logical extent and try to get players to be the designers. If you’re asking the players what they think of a game, why not just ask them what they want in a game and have them design it?
当然，这种想法的问题在于，游戏玩家不是设计师——就像喜欢看电影的人不是导演，喜欢吃饭的人不是厨师一样。从玩家那里获得充分而准确的反馈很重要，但必须记住这只是反馈：玩家通常会告诉你他们不喜欢的东西，但大多数情况下他们无法告诉你如何解决问题。找到这些解决方案仍然是游戏设计师的工作。
The problem with this line of thinking is, of course, that game players aren’t designers—any more than people who enjoy movies are directors or those who enjoy eating are chefs. It is important to get adequate and accurate feedback from your players, but it is vital to remember that it is feedback: players will often tell you about something they don’t like, but in most cases they cannot tell you how to solve it. Finding those solutions remains the game designer’s job.
分析方法
Analytical Methods
摆脱内部、直观的游戏平衡方法，我们就会采用更外部、更定量的方法。这些方法涉及的是确切的数字，而不是模糊的感觉——至少在某种程度上是这样。不可避免地需要对分析数据进行一定程度的解释，但尽管如此，使用这些方法可以帮助您清除许多意见，并用无偏见的数据取而代之。
Moving away from the internal, intuitive methods of game balancing takes us to methods that are more external and quantitative. These involve hard numbers rather than fuzzy feelings—at least to some degree. There is inevitably some amount of interpretation of analytical data, but nevertheless, using these methods can help you clear away a lot of opinion and replace it with unbiased data.
顾名思义，分析方法涉及分析（分解）有关游戏玩法的现有数据。这意味着，除非有足够多的人玩你的游戏（因此直到你的游戏本身足够好玩），否则这些方法可能不会很有用。但是，随着游戏的进展，特别是当你有数百或数千人玩游戏时，你可以从他们的游戏过程中收集数据并从中找到极其有用的模式。
As the term implies, analytical methods involve analyzing—breaking down—existing data on how a game is played. This means that until you have enough people playing your game (and thus until your game is itself sufficiently playable), these methods likely won’t be very useful. However, as your game progresses and especially once you have many hundreds or thousands of people playing, you can cull data from their play sessions and find extremely useful patterns within.
您可以通过多种形式的分析来评估游戏的整体健康状况（请参阅第 10 章“游戏平衡实践”）。这些包括任何一天或一个月内玩游戏的人数。但为了实现平衡，观察玩家在玩游戏时的行为更有用。他们是否遵循某些路径而不遵循其他路径，或者他们是否反复执行某些任务而避开其他任务？玩家必须做出重大决定的任何地方都是您了解他们如何玩游戏的机会，方法是记录他们的选择——甚至做出这些选择需要多长时间。
There are many forms of analytics you can track to assess the overall health of your game (see Chapter 10, “Game Balance Practice”). These include things like the number of people playing your game on any given day or over the course of a month. For balancing purposes, though, it’s more useful to look at how players behave as they play the game. Do they follow some paths and not others, or do they do some quests over and over but avoid others? Anyplace the players have to make a major decision is an opportunity for you to learn more about how they play the game by recording their choices—and even how long it takes to make them.
例如，在战略游戏中，你可能想看看哪一方赢得了多少场战斗；如果一个派系赢得的战斗次数明显多于另一个派系，那么显然存在平衡问题。同样，在角色扮演游戏中，了解玩家选择扮演哪些角色很有用，尤其是当他们第一次进入游戏时。他们是否花时间阅读你所做的描述？他们是否完成了教程还是中途放弃？
For example, in a strategy game, you might want to look at which sides won how many battles; if one faction wins significantly more than another, there’s clearly a balance problem hiding in there. Similarly, in a role-playing game, it’s useful to understand which characters players choose to play, especially when they are first entering the game. Do they take time to read the descriptions you’ve made? Do they complete the tutorial or give up halfway through?
您还可以分析不同角色类型升级到某一特定点（例如，达到特定等级）所需的时间。如果盗贼升级速度总是最快，这可能意味着他们具有一些固有优势，您希望将其与其他职业相提并论。另一方面，这可能意味着主要熟悉游戏的高级玩家也会玩盗贼，因此升级速度比新玩家更快。不仅要查看初始数据（哪些职业升级速度最快），还要查看其他因素（例如玩家玩游戏的时间长短）甚至潜在因素（例如会话长度、他们扮演过多少其他角色等），这有助于您找到最重要的相关性。如果事实证明盗贼确实升级速度最快，但通常由游戏历史较长的玩家扮演，那么您可以为该职业添加更多挑战以保持这些玩家的兴趣。
You can also look analytically at how much time it takes for different character types to progress to a certain point (for example, attain a given level). If thieves always level up the fastest, that might mean they have some inherent advantage that you want to even out with the other classes. On the other hand, it might mean that mainly advanced players who know the game well also play thieves and thus level faster than newer players. Looking not just at the initial data (which class levels are fastest) but also including other factors (such as how long the player has been playing) and even potential factors (like session length, how many other characters they have played, and so on) helps you find the most significant correlations. If it turns out that thieves do level up fastest, but they are typically played by players with a long history in the game, you may be able to add more challenges to this class to keep those players interested.
示例：Tumbleseed
你可以通过玩家在游戏中的进展情况来评估玩家的行为。作为一个现实世界的例子，游戏Tumbleseed的制作者写了一篇事后博客文章向其他开发者提供游戏成功和失败的反馈 (Wohlwend 2017)。在这篇博文中，开发者谈到了有多少玩家和媒体人士将游戏描述为“太难”，称其“不公平，没有宽容度”。虽然游戏难度高和没有宽容度可能不是所有游戏的问题，但对他们来说，这种看法严重限制了游戏的收入和商业成功。正如他们在文章中指出的那样，这可能是因为游戏的难度和明亮、休闲的图形之间明显不匹配。该团队现在表示，他们怀疑游戏是否能完全收回开发成本。在事后分析中，玩家在游戏中的进度内部数据显示如下：
You can assess player behavior in terms of how players progress through the game. As a real-world example, the makers of the game Tumbleseed wrote a postmortem blog post about what went well and what went wrong with the game as a service to other developers (Wohlwend 2017). In the blog post, the developers talked about how many players and people in the media described the game as being “too hard,” saying that it was “unfair and unforgiving.” While being hard and unforgiving may not be a problem for all games, in their case, this perception severely limited the game’s revenues and commercial success. As they note in their write-up, this may have been because of an apparent mismatch between the game’s difficult gameplay and its bright, casual-seeming graphics. The team now says they doubt the game will ever fully recoup its development costs. In the postmortem, the internal data for how the players progressed through the game showed the following:
41% 的玩家到达丛林
41% of players reached the Jungle
8.3% 的玩家到达沙漠
8.3% of players reached the Desert
1.8% 的玩家到达雪地
1.8% of players reached the Snow
0.8% 的玩家到达顶峰
0.8% of players reached the Summit
0.2% 的玩家通关了游戏
0.2% of players beat the game
即使对游戏一无所知，你也可以从这些数字中看出很多东西。59% 的开始游戏的玩家没有完成他们的第一个检查点（进入丛林），并且接下来的两个检查点分别损失了大约 80% 的剩余玩家，这表明玩家在游戏中取得的进展存在很大问题。这些统计数据应该对难度提升和平衡性发出巨大警报（并且可能早在游戏发布之前就应该注意到）。
Without knowing anything about the game, you can tell a lot from these numbers. The fact that 59% of players who started the game didn’t finish their first checkpoint (getting to the Jungle) and that the next two checkpoints each saw a loss of about 80% of the remaining players shows that there were big problems with the progress players made through the game. Those statistics should have raised huge alarms about difficulty ramping and balance (and probably should have been caught long before the game was released).
该团队继续识别这些数字背后的问题，并意识到要想在游戏中取得成功，玩家必须同时处理所有这些因素：
The team went on to identify the problems underlying these numbers and came to realize that to be successful in the game, players had to deal with all these factors at the same time:
掌握新的控制方案
New control scheme to master
新的游戏系统和规则需要内化
New game system and rules to internalize
需要了解的新地形（每次随机生成）
New terrain to understand (randomly generated every time)
需要学习的新敌人（有时有多个）
New enemies (sometimes multiple) to learn
可以利用的新能力（有些对玩家来说是危险的）
New powers to utilize (some that are dangerous to the player)
毫不奇怪，团队得出的结论是玩家感到不知所措；用我们在本书中使用的术语来说，游戏设计远远超出了玩家的互动预算，同时在行动/反馈、短期认知和长期认知互动方面给他们施加了沉重的负担。游戏要求玩家快速建立心智模型，同时在多个层面学习新的互动。难怪大多数人都放弃了！
Not surprisingly, the team concluded that players felt overwhelmed; in the terms we’ve been using in this book, the game design far exceeded the player’s interactivity budget, tasking them hard on action/feedback, short-term cognitive, and long-term cognitive interactivity at the same time. The game required that the players rapidly build mental models while learning new interactions at multiple levels at the same time. No wonder most people just gave up!
虽然这似乎不是一个游戏平衡问题，但显然人们普遍认为游戏太难了，吸引力不够，最终也没有足够的乐趣让人继续玩下去。这里的解决方案并不像让一个职业更强或更弱，或者让某个特定关卡更容易通过那么简单。这是你在早期想要发现的问题游戏开发过程中，至少通过游戏测试来监控游戏的开发进度。（显然，游戏设计师的直觉在这里没有起到作用，因为在团队的体验中，这款游戏肯定玩得很好。）不过，值得称赞的是， Tumbleseed团队确实在游戏中加入了分析玩家在游戏中进展的能力；否则，他们根本不知道为什么这款游戏会被认为如此困难。1
While this may not seem like a game balance problem, it is clearly a common perception that the game was too hard, not sufficiently engaging, and ultimately not enough fun to continue playing. The solution here is not as simple as making one class stronger or weaker or making a particular level easier to get through. This is the kind of problem that you want to find early in your game’s development, via playtesting if nothing else. (Clearly the game designer’s intuition did not help here, as the game surely played well in the team’s experience.) To the Tumbleseed team’s credit, though, they did include in their game the ability to find out analytically how people progressed in the game; otherwise, they would have been completely in the dark about why the game was seen as being so difficult.1
如本例所示，要能够像这样分析玩家行为数据，需要从游戏中收集某种形式的数据。这意味着游戏必须能够将您想要收集的数据写入内存或文件，然后以某种频率发送给您。具有移动或在线组件的游戏可以相当轻松地做到这一点，因为它们无论如何都必须在登录时检查玩家的凭据，并且可以与服务器进行短时间通信以记录信息，而不会有太多麻烦。对于完全离线的游戏，这可能更加困难，但即使如此，您也可以让游戏写入日志文件，然后将其发送回您的服务器（在玩家许可的情况下）。对于模拟（桌面）游戏，您收集分析数据的能力可以追溯到游戏测试，包括跟踪定量指标，例如游戏长度、单个回合的长度、所玩的不同棋子或策略等。
As this example shows, being able to analyze player behavioral data like this requires some form of data collection from your game. This means the game has to be able to write the data you want to collect to memory or to a file and then send it to you at some frequency. Games that have a mobile or online component do this fairly easily, as they have to check the player’s credentials on login anyway and can communicate in short bursts with a server to log information without too much trouble. With fully offline games, this can be more difficult, but even there, you can have the game write to a log file and then send it back to your server (with the player’s permission). With analog (tabletop) games, your ability to collect analytics goes back to playtesting, including tracking quantitative measures such as the length of a game, the length of individual turns, different pieces or strategies played, and so on.
分析方法注意事项
如果足够重视分析游戏平衡，那么一个潜在的陷阱就是，您可能会开始相信，只要有足够的数据，就可以消除游戏设计中的所有风险（和创造力）。一些游戏开发者尝试收集大量有关玩家偏好的数据，这些数据与游戏类型、游戏机制、艺术风格等有关，并试图将这些数据整合在一起，打造一款他们认为一定会成功的游戏。不幸的是，这些努力并没有奏效，部分原因是它们没有考虑到玩家希望在游戏中看到的内容的系统性和突发性影响——游戏类型、艺术风格、游戏玩法和其他未考虑的因素如何相互作用。数据也无法告诉您玩家无法告诉您的内容——如果他们看到但还无法想象，他们会想要什么。（这让人想起亨利·福特的一句话：“如果我问人们想要什么，他们会说更快的马。”）
With a sufficient focus on analytical game balancing, a potential pitfall is that you can start believing that with enough data, you can remove all the risk (and creativity) from game design. Some game developers have tried collecting massive amounts of data on player preferences related to genre, gameplay mechanics, art style, and so on and tried to smash it all together into a game that was, they thought, guaranteed to be successful. Unfortunately, these efforts don’t work, in part because they don’t take into account the systemic and emergent effects of what players want to see in a game—how genre, art style, gameplay, and other unaccounted factors all interact. The data also can’t tell you what players can’t tell you—what they would want if they saw it but they can’t yet conceive of. (This is reminiscent of the statement attributed to Henry Ford that “if I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”)
这并不意味着市场驱动分析在游戏设计中毫无用处；它们可以帮助你了解玩家可能对什么感兴趣，或者市场已经饱和的地方。然而，我们所谓的分析驱动设计和分析知情设计之间存在很大差异。与任何其他类型的反馈一样，作为游戏设计师，你需要对其进行解释并将其置于上下文中。你不能让数据（或游戏测试者或你自己的感觉）凌驾于其他一切之上。
This does not mean that market-driven analytics are not useful in game design; they can help you understand what players might be interested in or where the market is already glutted. However, there is a big difference between what we might call analytics-driven design and analytics-informed design. As with any other kind of feedback, you as the game designer need to interpret it and put it in context. You cannot let the data (or the playtesters or your own feelings) overrule everything else.
样本量和信息失真
这里需要注意的另一个问题和解释形式与样本量有关。如果你能从大部分玩家那里收集数据，并发现很大一部分如果你的开发者从未在你的游戏中建造过某种建筑或扮演过某种类型的角色，那么这些信息就很有用，你应该调查一下为什么会这样。不幸的是，有时这种信息很难获得，所以开发者依靠他们的朋友、小型焦点小组或一小部分玩家来告诉他们游戏中哪些行得通，哪些行不通。这些方法都存在很大的风险，因为少数人并不能代表整体。（最糟糕的情况有时是产品变更，因为你老板的侄子说他不喜欢现在的某种东西。）
Another caution and form of interpretation needed here relates to sample size. If you can gather data from a large portion of your players and see that a significant percentage of them never construct a certain building or play a certain type of character in your game, this is good information that should lead you to investigate to find out why this is the case. Unfortunately, sometimes this kind of information is difficult to get, and so developers rely on their friends, a small focus group, or a small portion of their community of players to tell them what is working or not working in the game. Each of these carries a significant risk that the small population is not representative of the whole. (The worst case is sometimes discussed as product changes that get made because your boss’s nephew said he doesn’t like something the way it is.)
即使手头有大量的分析信息，拥有一个活跃的社区也是一个巨大的好处，但这是有代价的。喜欢你的游戏的玩家往往对游戏的评价最高，也是最抗拒改变的。你可能有确凿的信息，比如，某种车辆太强大了，需要降低它的最高速度，或者游戏中的某个物品需要被移除，这样你的团队就可以重新设计它，这样它就不会破坏游戏。
Even with ample analytical information at hand, having an engaged community is a huge benefit, but it comes at a price. Players who love your game are often the most vocal about it—and the most resistant to change. You may have solid information that, say, a certain kind of vehicle is overpowered and needs to have its top speed reduced or that an item in the game simply needs to be removed so your team can rework it so that it doesn’t break the game.
在您的游戏中做出这样的改变的结果是，有些人会变得非常愤怒，并大声表达他们的不满。如果您不小心，这可能会导致您推翻从所有玩家的行为中获取的可靠设计信息。
The result of making a change like this in your game is that some people will become very angry and very loud in voicing their displeasure. If you’re not careful, this can cause you to override what you know to be solid design information taken from the behavior of all your players.
有一次，我带领一个团队对一款已经部署并每天有大约 10 万人玩的游戏进行重大更改。我们仔细规划了这些更改，进行了游戏测试，然后将其部署到游戏中。我们的论坛炸了锅，很多人都很生气。团队中的一些人认为我们犯了一个错误，应该撤销这些更改，因为愤怒的情绪正在向我们袭来。然而，当我们仔细分析情况时，我们发现，衡量人们玩游戏的几个重要指标正在上升（这是好事），没有任何迹象表明可能出了问题。此外，虽然抱怨的声音很大，但当我们仔细观察时，我们发现可能有几十个人大声反对我们所做的改变。当然，在我们游戏社区论坛的回音室里，这似乎很多，那些大声疾呼的人确信他们比我们更了解这款游戏（不幸的是，这是游戏社区的共同主题）。但与每天玩游戏的其他玩家相比，愤怒的呼声只占很小的一部分——不到所有玩家的 0.05%。他们确实是最投入的玩家，但尽管如此，我们还是坚持分析方法，为其他 99.95% 的玩家改进了游戏。很快，每个人都习惯了这种变化——并继续抱怨其他事情。
In one instance, I was leading a team that had to make significant changes to a game that was already deployed and being enjoyed by about 100,000 people every day. We planned the changes carefully, playtested them, and then deployed them into the game. Our forums blew up; many people were angry. Some on the team thought we had made a mistake and should roll back the changes, given the fury that was being directed our way. However, when we looked at the situation carefully and analytically, we discovered that several important measures of how people were playing the game were going up (a good thing), without any contraindications that something might be wrong. In addition, while the voices of those complaining were loud, when we looked closely, we found that there were maybe a few dozen people who were vocally against the changes we had made. Of course, in the echo chamber of our game community forums, this seemed like a lot, and those loud voices were sure they knew more about the game than we did (a common theme in game communities, unfortunately). But compared to everyone else who played the game each day, the angry vocal contingent represented a very small portion—less than 0.05% of all the players. They were some of the most committed players, it’s true, but nevertheless we held to our analytical approach and improved the game for the other 99.95% of our players. Soon enough everyone became used to the change—and went on to complain about other things.
确实，有时最有发言权的参与者也是“思想领袖”，他们可以预示整体人群将如何反应。但同样常见的情况是，少数发言者并不代表其他任何人。利用现有数据进行分析有助于区分这些情况。
Now it is true that sometimes your most vocal players are also the “thought leaders” who can signal how the overall population will react. But it’s just as often the case that the small vocal populations aren’t representative of anyone else. Looking at the situation analytically with the data you have helps differentiate between these.
数学方法
Mathematical Methods
最后一组用于平衡游戏的定量方法大致属于涉及数学建模的范畴。虽然分析方法也使用数学，但这些方法更具回顾性，使用现有的行为数据，而这些方法更具前瞻性，构建游戏如何运作的模型。
The final set of quantitative methods for balancing a game fall loosely into the category of those involving mathematical modeling. While analytical methods use math as well, those methods are more backward-looking, using existing behavioral data, while these are more forward-looking, building models of how the game will work.
数学模型在创建新游戏时非常有用。它们对于具有大量不同形式的进步的竞争性游戏尤其重要。这些方法可帮助您定义对象之间的特定关系，并确保它们都不会破坏游戏的平衡性。数学方法可能变得非常复杂，随着它们变得越来越高级，需要额外的数学、概率和统计学知识。第10 章讨论了一些最普遍适用的方法，但您可能希望根据特定游戏的需求进一步探索这个主题。
Mathematical models are most useful when creating a new game. They are particularly important to competitive games with lots of progression in one form or another. These methods help you define specific relationships between objects and ensure that none of them are unbalancing the game. Mathematical methods can become pretty complicated, requiring additional knowledge of math, probability, and statistics as they become more advanced. Some of the most generally applicable methods are discussed in Chapter 10, but this is a topic you might want to explore further based on the needs of your particular game.
第 8 章介绍了如何使用电子表格存储游戏数据，特别是游戏对象（组成游戏各部分）的属性值。这包括使用行来表示不同的对象，使用列来表示它们的共同属性，交叉处的单元格保存每个对象的值。还讨论了使电子表格更有条理的方法，包括颜色格式和注释。所有这些都是保持游戏设计数据井井有条所必需的。在将数学建模技术应用于游戏设计时，请记住它们。
Chapter 8 provides an introduction to using spreadsheets for storing game data—specifically the values for attributes on game objects that make up the parts of the game. This includes the use of rows for different objects and columns for their shared attributes, with the cells at the intersections holding the values for each object. Methods for keeping your spreadsheet more organized, including color formatting and comments, are also discussed. All these are necessary for keeping your game design data organized. Keep them in mind as you apply mathematical modeling techniques to your game design.
如第 10 章所述，将设计数据存储在电子表格中是可视化不同对象之间关系的关键，在某些情况下，也是创建数学模型和公式来设置计算其他值的值的关键。以这种方式使用数据以及数学工具可帮助您确保以下几点：
As discussed in Chapter 10, storing your design data in spreadsheets is key to visualizing the relationship between different objects and, in some cases, to creating mathematical models and formulas to set the values for computing additional values. Using your data this way, along with mathematical tools, helps you ensure the following:
不同对象的成本和收益是平衡的。
Costs and benefits for different objects are in balance.
没有任何一个物体能够打败所有其他物体，或者被所有其他物体打败。
No single object becomes the one to beat all others or is beaten by all others.
随着游戏中的物体、成本和奖励不断增加，它们会以大致相同的速度前进，并且这个速度既符合玩家的公平感和参与感，也符合设计师对游戏快慢、难易程度的感觉。
As objects, costs, and rewards progress in the game, they do so at approximately the same rate—and at a pace that fits both the player’s sense of fairness and engagement and your designer sense of how fast or slow, easy or difficult, the game should be.
数学建模注意事项
虽然数学建模对于游戏平衡至关重要，但同样重要的是要记住，它只是达到目的的手段，而不是目的本身。你必须避免这样的幻想：使用数学工具就能让你的游戏达到恰到好处的平衡。在任何复杂的游戏中，这种情况都极不可能出现，而且它可能会分散你的注意力，让你最终追逐它太久。数学模型将帮助你找到游戏中最不平衡的部分，但它们不会以任意的完整性或精确度标准来做到这一点。（如果可能的话，这样做所花费的时间和精力将远远超过开发游戏其余部分所花费的时间。）
While mathematical modeling is a vitally important tool for game balance, it is equally important to remember that it is a means to an end, not an end itself. You must avoid the illusion that by using mathematical tools you can get the balance for your game just right. In a game of any complexity, this is extremely unlikely, and it can be a distraction you end up chasing too long. Mathematical models will help you find the most unbalanced parts of your game, but they will not do so to an arbitrary standard of completeness or precision. (The time and effort it would take to do so, if it were possible, would be far greater than the time spent developing the rest of the game.)
这些模型也无法帮助您做出美学决定。如果您希望游戏中的某辆汽车速度更快或更炫，但成本又不高，您必须想办法在设定的整体平衡约束内实现这一点。这可能包括创建其他成本（速度快、炫酷的汽车可能维护成本高或操控性不好），使用游戏中现有的系统或属性，或创建新的系统或属性。
These models also will not help you make aesthetic decisions. If you want a particular vehicle in your game to be a little faster or a little flashier and still not cost more, you will have to work out how to do this within the overall balance constraints you set. This might include creating other costs (maybe the fast, flashy car also has high maintenance costs or doesn’t handle well), using either existing systems or attributes in your game or creating new ones.
总体而言，虽然数学建模方法通常非常有用，但正如我们讨论过的其他方法一样，它们不能替代游戏设计师的判断。作为设计师，您需要决定希望玩家拥有什么样的体验，并适当地使用工具来创建游戏以实现这一目标。
Overall, while mathematical modeling methods are often highly useful, as with the other methods we have discussed, they are no substitute for the game designer’s judgment. It is up to you as the designer to decide what kind of experience you want the player to have and to use tools appropriately to create the game to do so.
在游戏平衡中使用概率
Using Probability in Game Balancing
平衡中另一组重要的定量工具是使用概率来决定事件的工具。对概率和统计的全面探讨超出了本书的范围，但以下部分讨论了设计和平衡游戏时需要了解的一些概念。
Another important set of quantitative tools in balancing is those that employ probability to decide events. A full exploration of probability and statistics is beyond the scope of this book, but the following sections discuss some concepts you need to understand in designing and balancing games.
游戏概率速成
A Quick Primer on Probability in Games
概率表示某事发生的可能性。如果你确定明天太阳会升起，你可以说这件事发生的可能性是 100%。如果你认为可能会下雨，但你不确定，你可以说下雨的可能性是 50%。虽然我们经常用百分比来表示概率，但一种等效但更有用的方法是将其表示为 0 到 1 之间的数字，其中 100% = 1.0，50% = 0.5。除此之外，这还使我们能够更轻松地对概率进行数学运算。
Probability indicates the likelihood of something happening. If you’re certain the Sun will come up tomorrow, you can say there is a 100% chance that it will happen. If you think it might rain, but you’re not sure, you might say there is a 50% chance of rain. While we often speak of probabilities in percentage terms, an equivalent but slightly more useful way is to express them as a number between 0 and 1, where 100% = 1.0, and 50% = 0.5. Among other things, this allows us to do mathematical manipulations of probabilities more easily.
我们在游戏中使用概率来模拟我们实际上并未实现的系统。如第 8 章所述，作为游戏设计师，你必须选择游戏系统层次结构的最低点——为某个部分分配名称/值对属性而不是为其创建子系统的点。同样，我们为那些内部组成过于深奥或过于精细而无法在游戏中创建为系统的事件分配概率。例如，如果在你的游戏中，玩家角色挥舞着剑对抗怪物或试图用自己的智慧和魅力赢得某人的好感，我们通常会使用概率来决定接下来会发生什么。另一种方法是深入研究剑刃和怪物皮肤的物理细节或相互吸引的心理和生物化学。在某个时候，游戏设计必须达到最简单的水平。当这种情况发生时，我们设定一个成功的概率，创建一个随机值，然后看看会发生什么。
We use probability in games to simulate systems that we don’t actually implement. As stated in Chapter 8, as a game designer, you have to choose where the hierarchy of the systems in your game bottoms out—the point at which you assign a name–value pair attribute to a part rather than creating a subsystem for it. In the same way, we assign probabilities to events whose internal compositions are too esoteric or finely detailed to create as systems in games. For example, if in your game a player character swings a sword at a monster or attempts to win someone over with their wit and charm, we often decide what happens next by using probability. The alternative is to dive deep into the details of the physics of the sword’s blade and the monster’s hide or the psychology and biochemistry of mutual attraction. At some point, the game design has to hit its simplest level. When that happens, we set a probability of success, create a random value, and see what happens.
随机化
游戏中有很多随机选择的设备。多面骰子、卡片、随机计数器和其他设备使桌面游戏玩家能够创造随机结果。在电子游戏中，代码中的随机数生成器可以模拟这些相同类型的随机选择。如果您玩数字纸牌游戏，部分代码会生成 1 到 52 范围内的随机数，并根据结果选择下一张牌。
There are many devices for making a random selection in games. Polyhedral dice, cards, randomized counters, and other devices enable players of tabletop games to create random outcomes. In electronic games, random number generators in code can simulate these same kinds of random selections. If you play a digital game of solitaire, some part of the code is generating random numbers in a range of 1 to 52 and choosing which card comes next, based on the result.
这里需要注意的是，使用“随机”这个词，我们要求的只是明显的随机性。不必使用原子核衰变之类的极端措施；只要洗牌不是故意不熟练或偷偷设置牌的顺序，只要数字随机数生成器的周期性低于可辨别的水平，随机数生成器几乎适用于所有游戏。在大多数情况下，重要的是功能上可接受的随机性。
It’s important to note here that by using the word random, we aren’t requiring anything more than apparent randomness. No extreme measures like the decay of atomic nuclei have to be used; as long as the shuffle of a deck of cards isn’t intentionally incompetent or surreptitiously setting card order, and as long as the periodicity of a digital random number generator is below a discernable level, random number generators will work for almost all games. What matters in most cases is functionally acceptable randomness.
独立事件和关联事件
Separate and Linked Events
了解概率和随机事件如何运作很重要。首先是独立事件和关联事件如何产生概率。如果你抛一枚硬币，有 50% 的机会，即 0.5 的概率，硬币会正面或反面朝上。硬币有两面，只有一面朝上，所以 2 中有 1 的概率，即 1/2 = 0.5。请注意，可能结果的总和等于 1（两个结果，两个面，2/2 = 1.0）。情况总是如此：所有可能结果加在一起必须正好等于 1.0。
It’s important to understand a few things about how probabilities and random events work. The first is how separate and linked events create probabilities. If you flip a coin, there is a 50% chance, or 0.5 probability, that it will come up either heads or tails. The coin has two sides, and only one can land face-up, so that’s 1 out of 2, or 1/2 = 0.5. Note that the sum of the possible outcomes equals 1 (two outcomes, two sides, 2/2 = 1.0). This is always the case: all the possible outcomes added together have to add up to exactly 1.0.
抛硬币之前，你并不知道哪一面会朝上；这是一个随机事件。假设你抛硬币，结果正面朝上。现在假设你再抛一次。再次正面朝上的概率是多少？之前的正面朝上的结果会改变这个概率吗？不会；这是两个独立的事件。所以，如果你抛硬币，不知何故连续 100 次得到正面朝上的结果，下一次抛硬币正面朝上的概率仍然是 0.5。抛硬币事件是完全独立的。
Before you toss a coin, you don’t know which side will come up; it’s a random event. Suppose you flip it, and it comes up heads. Now suppose you toss it again. What’s the probability that it will come up heads again? Does the previous result of heads change this at all? No; these are separate events. So if you flip a coin and somehow get a result of heads 100 times in a row, the probability of the next toss being heads is still 0.5. The coin-flip events are entirely separate.
另一方面，如果你选择将一组事件放在一起，并提前说明，例如，三次抛硬币必须全部出现正面才能产生某个结果（连续出现或同时出现三枚不同的硬币），那么这些事件就会相互关联：除非该组事件中的每次抛硬币都满足总体条件，否则就不会满足总体条件。在这种情况下，连续三次抛硬币出现正面的概率不是 0.5。而是将每次抛硬币的概率相乘以得出整个关联概率，因此 0.5 × 0.5 × 0.5 = 1/2 × 1/2 × 1/2 = 1/8，即 12.5%。请注意，12.5% 是 25% 的一半，而 25% 是 50% 的一半。每次关联抛硬币都有两种可能的结果，因此每次都将总概率减半。
On the other hand, if you choose to take a set of events together and say in advance that, for example, three coin tosses must all come up heads to achieve some result (either in sequence or with three different coins at the same time), then the events become linked: the overall condition isn’t met unless it’s met by every coin toss in the set. In this case, the probability of getting heads on three tosses in a row is not 0.5. Instead, you multiply the probability of each toss together to get the whole linked probability, so 0.5 × 0.5 × 0.5 = 1/2 × 1/2 × 1/2 = 1/8, or 12.5%. Notice that 12.5% is half of 25%, which is half of 50%. With each linked coin toss, you have two possible outcomes and so each time you are cutting the overall probability in half.
这些规则同样适用于掷骰子或做其他与概率有关的事情。六面骰子掷出六点的概率是 1/6，约等于 0.167。但同时掷出两个六点（一组相关事件）的概率是 1/6 × 1/6，即 0.028，即 2.8%。
These same rules hold true for rolling dice or doing anything else to which you can attach probability. The probability of rolling a six on a six-sided die is 1/6, or about 0.167. But the probability of rolling two sixes at the same time—a linked set of events—is 1/6 × 1/6, or 0.028, or 2.8%.
概率分布
Probability Distributions
两个六面骰子上的目标数字出现概率并不相同。概率由可以产生目标数字的不同组合数除以骰子面数（6），然后每次掷骰子时将该结果乘以自身得出。因此，当同时掷两个六面骰子（通常表示为 2d6）时，分母始终为 6 × 6 = 36。要将两个骰子相加（将两次掷骰子关联为一个事件）得出某个特定数字的概率，请将得出该数字的组合数相加，然后除以 36。因此，如果您想要计算掷出 2d6 骰子结果 5 的概率，请将可能的组合数相加：1 + 4、2 + 3、3 + 2、4 + 1。共有 4 种组合，因此您将结果除以 36，这相当于掷出 5 的概率约为 11.1%。
Not all target numbers on two six-sided dice have the same probability of occurring. The probability is given by the number of different combinations that can create a target number, divided by the number of sides on the die (6), with that multiplied by itself for every die rolled. So when rolling two six-sided dice together (often stated as 2d6), the denominator is always 6 × 6 = 36. To find the probability of getting a particular number when adding up both dice (which links the two rolls into one event), add together the number of combinations that will result in that number and divide that by 36. So if you want to find the probability of rolling a 5 on 2d6, add up the number of possible combinations: 1 + 4, 2 + 3, 3 + 2, 4 + 1. There are 4 combinations, so you divide that by 36, which equals about an 11.1% chance of getting a 5 on the roll.
如果你绘制 2d6 可能掷出结果的概率图，范围从 2 到 12（两个 1 到两个 6），你会看到概率不断上升和下降，形成一种山丘状。这近似于所谓的钟形曲线（见图9.1 ） ，因为它的形状。这也称为正态分布，有时也称为高斯分布。当有多个具有独立概率的事件（在本例中为每次掷骰子的结果）相互作用时，通常会出现这种特征形状。
If you chart out the probabilities of the possible roll results on 2d6, ranging from 2 to 12 (two 1s to two 6s), you can see that the probabilities go up and down again, forming sort of a hill. This approximates what’s known as a bell curve due to its shape (see Figure 9.1). This is also known as a normal distribution, or sometimes a Gaussian distribution. This characteristic shape often emerges when you have multiple events with independent probabilities (in this case, the result of each die roll) interacting together.
图 9.1掷 2d6 时获得每个结果的概率，如结果为每个数字的组合数所示
Figure 9.1 The probability of getting each result when rolling 2d6, as shown by the number of combinations that result in each number
如图9.1所示，曲线中数值的平均值称为均值；这是将曲线下的所有数据点相加并除以数据点数所得的结果。曲线的峰值或顶部称为众数——这是具有最高概率的值。在这种情况下，峰值位于中间，但不一定如此。位于分布中间的数字称为中位数，即在它上面的数字和在它下面的数字一样多（无论它们的值是多少）。最后，范围是分布所覆盖的值的跨度。对于 2d6 来说，范围是 2-12：你不能在两个六面骰子上掷出 1 或 13，所以它们超出了范围。2
As shown in Figure 9.1, the average of the values in the curve is called the mean; this is what you get if you add up all the data points under the curve and divide them by the number of data points. The peak, or top, of the curve is called the mode—this is the value that has the highest probability. In this case, the peak is in the middle, but it doesn’t have to be. The number that is in the middle of the distribution, so that there are as many numbers above it as below it (regardless of their value), is called the median. Finally, the range is the span of values covered by the distribution. For 2d6, that’s 2–12: you can’t roll a 1 or a 13 on two six-sided dice, so they’re out of the range.2
如图 9.1所示，在对称分布中，平均值、众数和中位数都相同。但是在其它概率分布中，由于概率并不对称，所以它们可能都不同。如果中位数和众数高于平均值，那么分布中的“块”就会被推到右边。同样，如果众数和中位数低于平均值，那么分布就会向左移动。例如，如果你查看角色扮演游戏中所有角色的力量值，你可能会发现虽然有些角色比其他角色强壮，但这些值并不形成对称的钟形曲线。如果范围是 1 到 100，那么这个组的平均值可能在 50 以上，因为玩家往往喜欢比大量（非冒险）人群的“平均水平”更强壮的玩家。
In a symmetrical distribution, as shown in Figure 9.1, the mean, mode, and median are all the same. However, in other probability distributions, where the probabilities are not symmetric, they can all be different. If the median and mode are above the mean, then the “lump” in the distribution is pushed to the right. Similarly, if the mode and median are below the mean, then the distribution will look shifted to the left. For example, if you looked at the strength value for all characters in a role-playing game, you would likely discover that while some characters are stronger than others, the values do not form a symmetrical bell curve. If the scale is 1 to 100, the mean for this group is likely somewhere above 50, as players tend to like players who are stronger than what might be considered “average” for a large (non-adventuring) population.
改变概率
游戏设计中另一个有用的概率相关概念是改变概率。如果您在普通扑克牌中寻找一张特定的牌，比如红心皇后，您可以抽一张牌直到找到您想要的牌（不替换您已经抽到的牌）。在第一次抽牌时，如果牌组已经洗过，您抽到红心皇后的概率是 1/52，或大约 0.02。但是，随着您不断抽牌而找不到那张牌，下次抽牌时找到它的概率会继续增加。如果您抽了 32 张牌但仍然没有找到目标牌，下次抽牌时的概率是 1/20，因为现在只剩下 20 张牌，红心皇后就是其中之一。随着您继续抽牌，下次抽到您的牌的几率会增加。最终，当只剩下一张牌而您仍然没有看到红心皇后时，概率为 1/1 = 1.0，即 100%。
Another useful probability-related concept in game design is changing probabilities. If you are looking for a particular card in a regular playing card deck, say the queen of hearts, you could draw a card until you find the one you’re looking for (without replacing the cards you’ve already drawn). On the first draw, if the deck has been shuffled, the probability that you’ll get the queen of hearts is 1/52, or about 0.02. However, as you keep drawing cards without finding that card, the probability of finding it on the next draw continues to increase. If you’ve drawn 32 cards and still not found the target card, the probability on next draw is 1/20, as now there are only 20 cards left, and the queen of hearts is one of them. As you continue, the odds that the next draw will be your card go up. Eventually, when there’s only one card left and you still haven’t seen the queen of hearts, the probability is 1/1 = 1.0, or 100%.
某些游戏会使用这种变化的概率，让玩家感觉自己离目标越来越近，即使目标本身完全基于概率而非技能。某些游戏包含所谓的“盲盒”，玩家可以购买一个盒子（实体或虚拟），即使不知道会得到什么奖品。你知道自己有 1% 的机会获得非常罕见的奖品。如果打开盲盒，事件是分开的，因此你在每个盲盒中获得稀有物品的概率仍为 1%。然而，在某些数字游戏中，开发人员会将概率关联起来，以保持玩家的参与度和游戏性。因此，如果你没有在第一个盲盒中获得稀有物品，这就像从牌堆中抽出一张牌。如果你想再试一次，你的概率会略有增加。这有时用于鼓励玩家继续尝试，因为他们知道成功的概率正在逐渐增加。但这种游戏的盲盒里通常有数千甚至数万个潜在的数字物品，玩家获得自己想要的物品的概率非常小。玩家需要经历许多事件（通常是多次连续购买盲盒）才能最终获得自己想要的奖品。
This kind of changing probability is used in some games to give players the feeling that they’re getting closer to some goal, even if the goal itself is entirely based on probability rather than skill. Some games include what are called “blind boxes,” where you buy a box (physical or virtual) even though you don’t know what prize you’ll get. You know you have, say, a 1% chance of getting a really rare prize. If you open blind boxes, the events are separate, and so the probability of your getting the rare item in each one remains at 1%. However, in some digital games, the developers link the probabilities to keep the player engaged and playing. So if you don’t get the rare item on the first blind box, it’s like drawing a card out of a deck. If you want to try again, your probability has increased slightly. This is sometimes used to encourage players to keep trying, knowing that their probability of success is creeping up. However, games that do this typically have thousands or tens of thousands of potential digital items in their blind boxes, so the player’s probability of getting the one item they want is very small. It requires many events—often many sequential purchases of blind boxes—for the player to finally get the prize they want.
认知偏差和三门问题
这种盲盒的使用提出了一系列关于游戏中概率使用的重要观点。首先，一般来说，人们不善于理解和估计概率。一个很好的例子是，随着奖金价值的上升，彩票销售额也会上升——尽管中奖的概率远低于被闪电击中、被流星击中或被鲨鱼袭击的概率——可能同时发生。
This use of blind boxes brings up a set of important points regarding the use of probabilities in games. The first is that people are, generally speaking, poor at understanding and estimating probabilities. A good demonstration of this is in how lottery ticket sales rise as the prize goes up in value—despite the fact that the probability of winning it is far less than that of being struck by lightning, hit by a meteor, or being attacked by a shark—possibly at the same time.
另一个说明概率有多么难以理解的极好例子是所谓的“三门问题”（也称为蒙提霍尔问题，以游戏节目《让我们做个交易》的前主持人命名）（Selvin 1975）。这个问题的思路是这样的：主持人给你展示了三扇关闭的门。其中一扇门后面有贵重奖品。另一扇门后面有一只毛发蓬乱的山羊。第三扇门后面什么都没有。你选择一扇门，比如说门 1。在打开你选择的门（1 号门）之前，主持人（谁知道奖品在哪里，山羊在哪里 — — 记住这一点很重要）会打开另一扇门，3 号门，在那里你可以看到山羊。然后主持人会问你，是继续选择原来的 1 号门，还是换成 2 号门？从概率的角度来看，问题是，现在哪扇门最有可能让你获得贵重奖品？
Another terrific illustration of how difficult it is to understand probabilities comes from what is known as the “three-door problem” (also known as the Monty Hall problem, after the former host of the game show Let’s Make a Deal) (Selvin 1975). The problem goes like this: your host shows you three closed doors. Behind one of them is a valuable prize. Behind another is a mangy goat. And behind the third is nothing at all. You pick a door, say Door 1. Before opening the door you picked (#1), the host (who knows where the prize is and where the goat is—that’s important to remember) instead opens a different door, #3, where you see the goat. The host then asks you, do you want to stay with your original choice, #1, or switch to #2? In terms of probabilities, the question is, which door now has the greatest probability of getting you the valuable prize?
第一次听到这个，很多人认为这无关紧要——概率并没有真正改变，所以你找到两扇门后面奖品的概率是相等的。但事实并非如此：换门实际上对你非常有利——如果你坚持原来的选择，你有 1/3 的机会，但如果你换到另一扇门，你有 2/3 的机会正确。
On first hearing this, many people believe that it doesn’t matter—the probabilities haven’t really changed, so you have an equal probability of finding the prize behind either door. But that’s not the case: it’s actually very much in your favor to switch doors—you have a 1/3 chance if you stay with your original choice, but a 2/3 chance of being right if you change to the other door.
在继续之前，请记住，这是关于概率和认知偏见的——我们如何误解概率。这个问题有一种技巧，但人们如何理解这样的概率与游戏设计有关。在这种情况下，技巧是主持人知道奖品在哪里。他没有随机打开一扇门，而是选择了他知道后面有一只山羊的门。
Before continuing, remember that this is about probabilities and cognitive biases—how we misunderstand probabilities. There is a sort of trick to this problem, but how people understand probabilities like this is relevant to game design. In this case, the trick is that the host knows where the prize is. He didn’t open a door at random but chose the one that he knew had a goat behind it.
因此，当您选择 1 号门时，您有 1/3 的机会猜对奖品，而机会是 0.33，因为您根本不知道奖品在哪里；奖品不是在不确定地移动，而是静止地待在其中一扇门后面。由于您猜对所选门的概率是 0.33，这意味着另外两扇门合起来有 0.67 的机会猜对其中一扇门后面的奖品。
So, when you choose door 1, you have a 1/3 chance of being correct that it has the prize behind it. Your chance is 0.33 because you just don’t know where the prize is; it’s not moving around indeterminately but is sitting still behind one of the doors. Since you have a 0.33 probability of being right with the door you have chosen, that means that together, the other two doors have a 0.67 chance of having the prize behind one of them.
现在请记住，主持人知道奖品在哪里，所以他不会错误地打开后面有奖品的门。所以当他打开 3 号门时，他提前知道山羊在那里。但是 0.33 和 0.67 的概率并没有因为那扇门被打开而改变，因为它不是随机打开的。这意味着你最初的选择仍然有 0.33 的机会是正确的（这是你一直都是正确的机会），但另一扇门现在有所有剩余的概率，或者 0.67 的机会是正确的。（请记住，所有可能结果的概率加起来必须等于 1.0。）这意味着虽然你的第一选择可能是正确的，但如果你换门，你正确选择并找到奖品的机会就增加了一倍。
Now remember that the host knows where the prize is, so he’s not going to open the door with the prize behind it by mistake. So when he opens door #3, he knows ahead of time that that’s where the goat is. But the 0.33 and 0.67 probabilities haven’t changed just because that door was opened, since it wasn’t opened at random. This means that your original choice still has a 0.33 chance of being right (that’s the chance that you really were right all along), but the other door now has all the remaining probability, or a 0.67 chance of being right. (Remember that the probability of all the possible outcomes has to add up to 1.0.) This means that while you could be right with your first choice, if you switch, you have doubled your chance of being correct and finding the prize.
您可能以前遇到过这个问题，在这种情况下，这都是复习。但如果您以前没有听说过，您可能会认为这个答案是错误的，并且在第一扇门打开后，概率确实是相等的。这是您需要解决的重要一点：理解概率以及我们对它们如何运作的认知偏见是游戏设计师的重要技能。
You may have encountered this problem before, in which case this is all review. But if you haven’t heard of this before, you might be thinking that this answer is wrong, and that the probabilities really are equal after the first door is opened. This is an important point you need to work through: understanding probabilities and our cognitive biases about how they work are important skills for a game designer.
以防万一，这里有一个修改版的问题，可能会有所帮助：假设不是 3 扇门，而是 100 扇门。一扇门后面是奖品，另一扇门后面是一只山羊，其余门都是空的。为了简单起见，你选择 1 号门。你猜对的概率是 1/100，即 0.01。奖品在另外 99 扇门后面的概率是 99%，即 0.99。但再一次，你的主持人——他知道奖品在哪里，山羊在哪里——打开了很多门。但这次他不只打开一扇门；相反，他打开了 98 扇门！所以现在你选择的 1 号门是关闭的。奖品一直在那里的概率仍然是 0.01。现在你看到 10 号门后面有一只山羊。所有其他门后面都没有东西——除了 58 号门，主持人选择不打开这扇门。因此，您只剩下两扇关闭的门，即 1 号门和 58 号门，主持人故意（而非随机）将它们关闭。您一开始猜对且奖品在 1 号门后面的概率为 0.01，而奖品在其他门之一后面的概率为 0.99，因为概率加起来需要等于 1.0。但是在所有其他门中，主持人唯一关闭的是 58 号门。您会换到那扇门还是保留您一开始的那扇门？如果您换门，您有 99% 的机会猜对。在这种情况下，您猜测主持人不打开那扇门的原因是因为奖品在它后面。当然，也有 1% 的机会您一直都是对的——但如果您了解概率的工作原理，您会换门并承担现在您可能猜错的 1% 的机会。
Just in case, here’s a modified version of the problem that may help: suppose that instead of 3 doors, there are 100 doors. Behind one is a prize, behind another is a goat, and all the rest are empty. To keep it simple, you choose door #1. You have a 1/100, or 0.01, chance of being correct. The probability that the prize is behind one of the other 99 doors is 99%, or 0.99. But once again, your host—who knows where the prize is and where the goat is—opens a bunch of doors. But this time he doesn’t open just one door; instead, he opens 98 doors! So now you have door #1 that you chose, which remains closed. There’s still a probability of 0.01 that the prize was there all along. You now see that door #10 had the goat behind it. All the other doors had nothing behind them—except door #58, which the host chose not to open. So you are down to two closed doors, #1 and #58, which your host left closed on purpose (not at random). There’s a 0.01 probability that you were correct at the start, and the prize is behind door #1, and there is a 0.99 probability that the prize was behind one of the other doors, since the probability needs to add up to 1.0. But of all those other doors, the only one that the host left closed is #58. Do you switch to that door or keep the one you started with? If you switch, you have a 99% chance of being correct. In that case, you’re guessing that the reason the host didn’t open that particular door is because the prize is behind it. Of course, there is that 1% chance that you were right all along—but if you understand how the probabilities work, you’ll switch and take the risk of the 1% chance that now you might be wrong.
公平
与玩家对概率的认知偏见密切相关的是他们对游戏是否公平以及公平性如何影响游戏平衡的判断。如果你玩一款六面骰子的游戏，发现其中一个骰子总是掷出 1，你会认为这个骰子不公平，所以游戏不公平。但在游戏中，尤其是数字游戏中，玩家甚至会认为纯粹的概率是不公平的。如果在游戏中做某事获得奖品的概率为 1/3（0.33，或 33%），但玩家在第三次或第四次尝试时没有获得奖品，有些人会开始相信游戏有问题或对他们不利。天真地说，在 0.33 的概率下，你会天真地认为在第三次尝试时会成功——也许更早，也许更晚。事实上，在 3 次尝试中获胜的概率为 33%，而获胜的概率约为 70%。但即使经过 10 次尝试，你仍有大约 2% 的概率可能没有获胜。了解如何在多次试验后计算出成功的百分比概率会对您有所帮助。这需要使用所谓的伯努利过程。简而言之，您将成功的概率（本例中为 0.33）从 1.0 中减去该值，得出失败的概率- 即在试验中成功率为零的概率。所以结果是 1.0 − 0.33 = 0.67。然后，将其提升到您要进行的试验次数的幂，或者玩家成功的几率。因此三次试验是 0.67 3，等于 0.67 × 0.67 × 0.67。这等于 0.30。但请记住，这是失败的概率，即根本没有成功。因此，再次从 1.0 中减去该值，将其反转回成功概率，您会得到 0.70 或 70% 的结果。
Closely aligned with players’ cognitive biases about probabilities is their sense of whether a game is fair and how this affects game balance. If you played a game involving six-sided dice and discovered that one of them consistently rolled ones, you would think the die was unfair and so the game wasn’t fair. But in games, especially digital games, players can come to see even pure probabilities as unfair. If there is a 1/3 (0.33, or 33%) chance of getting a prize for doing something in a game, and yet a player doesn’t get the prize by the third or fourth attempt, some will begin to believe the game is broken or rigged against them. Naively, with a 0.33 probability, you would expect to be successful on about the third attempt—maybe sooner, maybe later. In fact, the probability for getting a win with a 33% chance of success within 3 trials is about 70%. But even after 10 trials, there’s still about a 2% chance you might not have won. It’s helpful for you to be able to understand how to figure out the percentage chance of success after a number of trials. This involves using what’s called a Bernoulli process. In brief terms, you take the probability of success (0.33 in this example) and subtract that from 1.0 to show the chance of failing—that is, the chance that you will have zero successes in the trials. So that’s 1.0 − 0.33 = 0.67. Then you raise that to the power of the number of trials you’re going to run, or how many chances the player has to succeed. So three trials is 0.673, which is the same as 0.67 × 0.67 × 0.67. That equals 0.30. But remember, that’s the chance of failure, of having no successes at all. So flip it back to the probability of success by subtracting it from 1.0 again, and you have a result of 0.70, or 70%.
虽然作为一名游戏设计师，了解如何计算这样的概率很重要，但问题是玩家通常依靠直觉。因此，如果玩家知道成功的几率为 33%，但在第五次尝试后仍然没有得到奖品（概率约为 13.5%），他们可能会认为结果不公平，甚至是游戏作弊。
While it is important for you as a game designer to understand how to calculate a probability like this, the problem is that players typically go by their intuition. As a result, if a player knows there’s a 33% chance of success and still hasn’t gotten the prize after the fifth try (about a 13.5% probability), they are likely to perceive the result as being unfair or even cheating on the game’s part.
面对这种情况时，重要的是要记住，你制作游戏是为了吸引玩家并让他们享受乐趣，而不是为了统计严谨性。你有时可以以创造性的方式让概率偏向对玩家有利的方向（有时也可以偏向对玩家不利的方向），而不会破坏玩家的体验或游戏的平衡性。例如，假设你的游戏中有一个很少出现的物品，比如说 100,000 分之一的概率（0.00001 的概率），但玩家有很多机会尝试它——实际上是多次掷骰子。多少才算多次？按照这个概率，尝试 100 次的玩家成功的几率约为 1%。他们需要尝试近 70,000 次才能有 50% 的成功几率！对于单个玩家来说，这是很多，但在拥有 100 万名感兴趣玩家的游戏中，这些虚拟掷骰子可能会非常快地发生。
It’s important when faced with situations like this that you remember that you are making a game for engagement and enjoyment, not for statistical rigor. You can sometimes tilt the probabilities in the player’s favor—and sometimes against them in creative ways—without ruining the player’s experience or the game’s balance. For example, suppose you have an item in your game that is given out very rarely, say with a 1 in 100,000 chance (0.00001 probability), but the players have many opportunities to try for it—many die rolls, in effect. How many is many? With that probability, a player who tries 100 times has about a 1% chance of being successful. They would need to try nearly 70,000 times to have a 50% chance of success! That’s a lot for a single player, but in a game with 1 million interested players, those virtual die rolls could happen very quickly.
如果您希望此物品稀有，您是否需要完全公平，每次尝试的概率都相同？这样做是最简单且通常最合乎道德的做法。但是，在考虑整体游戏体验时，您可能需要调整几率。例如，在在线游戏中，许多玩家可以看到彼此以及他们拥有的物品，获得一件超级稀有的物品会带来一定的恶名。您可能希望通过降低找到该物品的几率来增加玩家等待该物品的紧张感，甚至在最初几个小时或几天内使其不可能出现。或者，您可能希望大幅增加该物品出现的几率——但只能增加一次。如果玩家在游戏中看到另一个玩家拥有超级稀有的超赞物品，他们通常会有动力尝试自己获得它，从而增加他们对游戏的参与度。但是您不希望这些物品充斥游戏，因为它们会很快失去其社会价值，因此如果您允许其中一个物品以更高的几率出现在游戏中，您需要立即重新调整概率。
If you want this item to be rare, do you need to be entirely fair and have the same probability on each attempt? Doing so is the easiest and often the most ethical thing to do. However, in thinking about the overall gameplay experience, you may want to adjust the odds. For example, in an online game where many players see each other and the items they have, getting a super-rare item brings with it a certain amount of notoriety. You may want to build up the tension of the players waiting for this item by tilting the odds against it being found, even to the point of making it impossible for the first few hours or days. Alternatively, you may want to increase the odds of the item appearing significantly—but only one time. If players see another player in the game with the super-rare Item of Awesomeness, they will often feel an incentive to try to get it themselves, thereby increasing their engagement with the game. But you don’t want to flood the game with those items, as then they quickly lose their social value, so you need to readjust the probabilities instantly if you do allow for one of those items to appear in the game with higher odds.
不太可能发生的事件的可能发生
如上一节所暗示，如果人口足够多，即使是非常罕见的事件也可能自行发生，因此你可能不需要倾斜天平。在一款每天有 100 万人玩的在线游戏中，假设其中 10 万人尝试获得一次超棒物品。在 100,000 次尝试中出现概率为 0.00001 的物品的几率约为 63% — 而且这还只是在一天内。这是“彩票逻辑”的另一面。如果玩的人足够多，那么总会有人赢，尽管任何特定玩家获胜的几率都很小。如果你在运行一款希望看到不可能事件发生的游戏，你可以稍微倾斜天平来鼓励玩家，或者依靠大量玩家来让概率为你所用。
As implied in the preceding section, with a large enough population, even very rare events are likely to occur on their own anyway, and so you may not need to tilt the scales. In an online game with 1 million people playing every day, say 100,000 of them make a single try for the Item of Awesomeness. The chance that an item with a 0.00001 probability will appear within 100,000 trials is about 63%—and that’s in a single day. This is the flip side of “lottery logic.” With enough people playing, someone is going to win, even though the chance of any given player winning is tiny. If you are running a game where you want to see improbable events happen, you can either tilt the scales slightly to encourage the players or rely on the large number of players you have to make the probabilities work for you.
这里需要提到另一种倾斜概率的形式。在许多社交赌场游戏中，真实赌场赌博游戏中执行的严格公平法并不适用。在社交赌场游戏中，玩家投入虚拟硬币（通常用真钱购买），但永远不会取出任何真钱，因此可以避免任何赌博的法律问题。如果你正在制作一款社交赌场游戏，那么你可以自由地使用各种技巧来玩弄人们的对概率的误解及其认知偏差。其中最常见的一种是差点中奖。假设你正在制作一款老虎机类的游戏，你必须在显示屏上连续显示四艘海盗船才能获胜。由于这一切都是在软件中完成的，游戏甚至可能在玩家下注或拉动（虚拟）杠杆之前就知道他们下一轮是否会赢。而且由于这不是真正的赌博，你可以在后台捣鼓一些小动作来增加他们的参与度并让他们继续玩下去。
One other form of tilting the probabilities needs to be mentioned here. In the case of many social casino games, the strict laws of fairness that are enforced on real casino gambling games do not apply. In social casino games, players put in virtual coins (often purchased with real money) but never get any real money out, so any legal issues of gambling are avoided. If you are making a social casino game, you are thus free to use all sorts of tricks to play on people’s misunderstanding of probabilities and their cognitive biases. One of the most common of these is the near miss. Suppose you are making a slot machine–like game where you have to get, say, four pirate ships in a row on the display in order to win. Since this is all being done in software, the game may know even before the player bets or pulls the (virtual) lever whether their next spin will win. And since it’s not actual gambling, you can mess around in the background to increase their engagement and keep them playing.
如果软件已经判定玩家的下一步行动不会取胜，你可以让它显示三艘海盗船排成一条线——一艘、二艘、三艘——而第四艘看起来即将排成一条线……但是却在少了一个位置就停了下来。或者说，它走得太远了，所以四艘船并没有完全排成一条线。这就是险胜。它完全是由软件构建的，但是玩家感觉他那次差点就赢了。即使显示不是随机的，即使两个连续的行动是具有自身概率的独立事件，玩家仍然经常觉得，如果他们一次差点赢，那么下一次他们获胜的概率一定更高。如果我投篮不中——尤其是如果我连续投丢了很多球——那么我肯定“差点就赢了”。这不是概率的运作方式，但往往是玩家思维的运作方式。
If the software has already determined that the player’s next play does not win, you can cause it to show three pirate ships falling into line—one, two, three—with the fourth one looking like it’s going to fall into place…and stopping one place short. Or going one place too far, so the four ships are not all in line. This is the near miss. It is entirely constructed by the software, but the player feels like he almost won that time. Even though the display is not random, and even though two sequential plays are independent events with their own probability, players nevertheless often feel that if they almost won once, they must have a higher probability of winning the next time. If I miss a basketball shot—and especially if I miss a bunch in a row—then I surely “have one coming.” This is not how probability works, but it is often how players’ minds work.
作为游戏设计师，你面临的问题是如何合乎道德地使用这些知识。例如，你可以改变玩家投篮（在虚拟篮球中）、击中怪物等的概率，这样他们就不会感到沮丧。如果你监控失误的次数，并每次默默地提高玩家成功的概率，玩家就更有可能感到满足和成就感（他们永远不知道游戏在幕后为他们做了更简单的事情）。或者，你可以在上述场景中使用这些知识：如果玩家可以用真钱购买更多旋转来获得游戏中的虚拟奖品，你可以使用近乎失误之类的技巧来鼓励他们继续玩——并付费。但是，如果你做得太过分，玩家就会明白这一点，并厌恶和沮丧地放弃你的游戏，觉得自己从来没有真正有机会获胜（另一个认知错误，只是方向相反）。由你来决定创建此类游戏的道德性。
The question for you as a game designer is how to use this knowledge ethically. You can, for example, change the probabilities of the player making a basket (in virtual basketball), hitting a monster, and so on so that they don’t become frustrated. If you monitor the number of misses and each time silently nudge upward the player’s probability of being successful, the player is more likely to feel a sense of satisfaction and achievement (without ever knowing that the game made things easier for them behind the scenes). Alternatively, you can use this knowledge in a scenario like the one above: if a player can purchase more spins with real money to get a virtual prize in your game, you can use techniques like the near miss to encourage them to keep playing—and paying. If you take this too far, though, players will figure it out and drop your game in disgust and frustration, feeling that they never really had a chance to win (another cognitive error, just in the other direction). It is up to you to decide on the ethics of creating gameplay like this.
及物系统和不及物系统
Transitive and Intransitive Systems
除了使用定量、定性和概率方法来平衡游戏之外，还有一些其他重要概念需要理解。其中之一就是 Ian Schreiber (2010) 所描述的游戏对象之间的传递和非传递关系。这些关系可以平衡传递和非传递系统。
In addition to using quantitative, qualitative, and probabilistic methods for balancing a game, there are a few other important concepts to understand. One of them is what Ian Schreiber (2010) describes as transitive and intransitive relationships between game objects. These lead to balancing transitive and intransitive systems.
传递平衡
Transitive Balance
由具有传递关系的部分组成的系统是系统中的每个部分都比一个部分好但比另一个部分差的系统。古老的石头剪刀布游戏( RPS ) 是传递平衡的一个普遍例子：石头压碎剪刀，剪刀剪开布，布盖住岩石。系统中的每个部分既战胜了其他部分，又被其他部分击败。没有哪个部分占主导地位或击败所有其他部分。
Systems made of parts with transitive relationships are those where every part within the system is better than one but inferior to another. The ancient game of Rock-Paper-Scissors (RPS) is a pervasive example of transitive balance: Rock crushes scissors, scissors cut paper, paper covers rock. Each part in the system both overcomes another and is beaten by a different one. No one part predominates or beats all the others.
传递系统并不局限于有三个相互关联的部分。有许多RPS类游戏的变体，其部分数多达 101 个（Lovelace 1999）。经典 RPS 的一个更为著名的变体是“石头-剪刀-布-蜥蜴-斯波克”，包括蜥蜴的新手势和《星际迷航》中的虚构人物斯波克先生（Kass and Bryla 1995）。在这个变体中，每个部分都保留了击败两个部分并被另外两个部分击败的特性：剪刀剪开布；布盖住石头；石头压碎蜥蜴；蜥蜴毒死斯波克；斯波克砸碎剪刀；剪刀斩首蜥蜴；蜥蜴吃掉布；布证明斯波克是错的；斯波克蒸发石头；石头压碎剪刀。图形形式不那么令人困惑，如图9.2所示。沿着箭头走，你会看到每个选择都击败了两个，并且被另外两个选择击败。
Transitive systems are not limited to having three interrelated parts. There are many higher-number variants of RPS-like games, including those with up to 101 parts (Lovelace 1999). A more well-known variant of classic RPS is “Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock,” including new hand gestures for a lizard and the fictional Mr. Spock from Star Trek (Kass and Bryla 1995). In this variant, each part retains the quality of beating two parts and being beaten by two others: scissors cuts paper; paper covers rock; rock crushes lizard; lizard poisons Spock; Spock smashes scissors; scissors decapitates lizard; lizard eats paper; paper disproves Spock; Spock vaporizes rock; and rock crushes scissors. It’s somewhat less confusing in graphical form, as shown in Figure 9.2. Trace the arrows, and you will see that each choice beats two and is beaten by two others.
图 9.2 石头-剪刀-布-蜥蜴-史波克作为具有传递平衡的系统
Figure 9.2 Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock as a system with transitive balance
具有传递关系的系统有很多例子。例如，古代中国哲学中的五行（有时称为相）是木、火、土、金、水。每一种元素都会产生另一种元素，并抵消另一种元素。例如，木生火，控制土（就像树根防止侵蚀一样）。土反过来又产生金并抵消（或阻挡）水（见图9.3）。总体而言，五行（“五个过程”或“五个相”）是一个高度系统化的结构，它关注动态部分之间的相互依存关系，而不是像古希腊的四元素集合那样简化。在中国思想中，这个系统被应用于从宇宙学和炼金术到政治、社会、武术和个人健康等各个领域。
There are many examples of systems with transitive relationships. For example, the five elements (sometimes called phases) in ancient Chinese philosophy are wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. Each gives rise to another and counteracts a different one. Wood feeds fire, for example, and controls earth (as tree roots prevent erosion). Earth in turn creates metal and counteracts (or dams) water (see Figure 9.3). Overall, Wu Xing (“five processes” or “five phases”) is a highly systemic construction, focusing on the interdependent relationships between the dynamic parts rather than being reductionist like the ancient Greek collection of four elements. In Chinese thought, this system has been applied to everything from cosmology and alchemy to politics, society, martial arts, and individual health.
举个自然界的例子，一些蜥蜴在繁殖竞争中使用了一组可传递的RPS类关系：橙色雄性击败蓝色雄性，蓝色雄性击败黄色雄性，黄色雄性击败橙色雄性。这种方案的进化效用是“每种 [颜色] 在稀有时可以入侵另一种颜色……，但当常见时，它本身可以被另一种 [颜色] 入侵”（Sinervo 和 Lively 1996）。
As an example from nature, some lizards use a transitive RPS-like set of relationships in competition for breeding: males with orange coloration beat those with blue, blue-colored males beat yellow, and yellow ones beat orange-colored ones. The evolutionary utility of this scheme is that “each [color] could invade another…when rare, but was itself invadable by another [color] when common” (Sinervo and Lively 1996).
这与 MMO Dark Age of Camelot中采用基于RPS系统的流行游戏玩法非常相似。这款游戏采用了游戏设计师称之为RvR或“领域对领域”的战斗方式，其中三个派系或领域的角色相互争斗，以控制游戏中的重要区域。每个派系都保持平衡以控制另一个派系，尽管这种平衡并不完美。但是，如果任何一个派系变得过于强大，其他两个派系就会联合起来击败它，从而有助于整个系统的平衡。
This is directly analogous to popular gameplay pioneered in the MMO Dark Age of Camelot using an RPS-based system. This game used what the game designers termed RvR, or “Realm vs. Realm” combat, where characters of each of three factions, or realms, battled against each other for control of important areas in the game. Each of the factions was balanced to dominate another, if imperfectly. However, if any one of the factions grew too strong, the other two would combine to beat it, contributing to the balance of the overall system.
最后一个现实世界中可传递的RPS关系示例来自一份 1975 年的美国军事训练文件（见图9.4）（陆军训练和条令司令部 1975 年）。在该文件中，美国陆军明确引用了“石头-剪刀-布”的规则，将其应用于不同类型军事单位之间的关系。这种RPS战斗生态模式在当今的游戏中很常见。许多战争游戏有意识地构建RPS风格的战斗，因为玩家容易理解，并且在系统层面上（相对）容易保持平衡。正确构建的可传递系统倾向于动态平衡，避免演变为不平衡的富人越来越富的状态。
A final real-world example of transitive RPS relationships comes from a 1975 U.S. military training document (see Figure 9.4) (Army Training and Doctrine Command 1975). In this document, the U.S. Army explicitly invoked Rock-Paper-Scissors, applying it to the relationships between different kinds of military units. This same RPS pattern of combat ecology is common in games today. Many wargames consciously build in RPS-style combat because it’s easy for players to understand and it’s (relatively) easy to balance at a systemic level. Constructed correctly, transitive systems tend toward a dynamic balance, avoiding a devolution into an unbalanced rich-get-richer state.
过渡平衡的要求
Requirements for Transitive Balance
要使系统实现传递平衡，系统必须包含奇数个部分，即在同一组织级别进行交互的部分（蜥蜴、单位、派系等）。之所以如此，是因为每个部分都必须满足击败或以其他方式控制剩余部分的一半，而另一半则被击败的条件。因此，在一个有五个部分的传递系统中，每个部分都击败两个部分，而其他两个部分则被击败。一个部分对另一个部分的这种控制可能是概率性的，因为一个部分可能比其他一半部分具有显著优势（而不是必胜），但主导地位必须明确，才能实现传递平衡。
To transitively balance a system, the system must contain an odd number of parts—those that interact at the same level of organization (lizards, units, factions, and so on). This is the case because each part must satisfy the condition of beating or otherwise dominating exactly one-half of the remaining parts and being beaten by the other half. So in a transitive system with five parts, each one beats two parts and is beaten by the other two. This control of one part over another may be probabilistic in that one part may have a significant advantage (rather than an assured win) over half of the others, but the dominance must be clear for a transitive balance to emerge.
一个拥有相同数量部件的系统无法维持稳定的传递平衡，因为某一派系或单位类型始终有可能发展出不均衡的优势或劣势。《魔兽世界》中的部落和联盟派系就是这种情况，正如第 7 章“创建游戏循环”中讨论的那样，游戏中只有两个派系。这阻碍了传递平衡的出现，并导致生态系统持续崩溃，设计师不得不努力克服这一问题。
A system that has an equal number of parts cannot maintain a stable transitive balance because there is always the potential for one faction or unit type to develop an uneven advantage or disadvantage. This is the case with the Horde and Alliance factions in World of Warcraft, as discussed in Chapter 7, “Creating Game Loops,” where the game has only two factions. This prevented a transitive balance from emerging and led to an ongoing ecological system collapse that the designers had to work hard to overcome.
在传递平衡系统中，每种类型的部件可能有多个实例或子类型，只要它们都聚合成一个不同的组，其中所有成员都具有相同的传递特性。也就是说，你可以有多种类型的步兵单位、骑兵单位和弓箭兵种，只要步兵组打败骑兵组，骑兵组打败弓箭手，弓箭手组打败步兵。虽然可以使用包含更多类型（五种、七种或更多）的系统来创建传递平衡，但拥有这么多类型使得定义确保传递平衡所需的属性值变得困难。即使只有三种，这也很有挑战性。这就是为什么很少有游戏会超越三种主要单位类型，而是依赖许多子类型的原因之一。
In a transitively balanced system, each type of part may have multiple instances or subtypes, as long as they all aggregate into a distinct group in which the members all share the same transitive characteristics. That is, you can have multiple types of infantry units, cavalry units, and archery units, as long as the infantry as a group beat the cavalry as a group, the cavalry beat the archers, and all the archers beat the infantry. While it’s possible to create transitive balance with systems containing more types (five, seven, or more), having this many makes defining the attribute values needed to ensure the transitive balance difficult to achieve. Even with only three, this can be challenging. This is one reason so few games go beyond three main unit types and rely instead on many subtypes.
实现过渡平衡
创建一个动态平衡的传递游戏系统通常需要处理系统中每个部分共享的多个属性。例如，我们可以为三种单位类型（步兵、骑兵和弓箭手）共享的四个属性（攻击、防御、射程和速度）中的每一个分配相对值。通过配置属性值，使每个属性值总体上具有相同的点数，如表 9.1中的 + 所示，我们实现了第一级平衡：没有一种单位类型的总体能力比另一种更强（每种单位类型的总体上具有相同数量的 +）。不同的单位类型对这些点数的分布不同：步兵最擅长攻击，骑兵速度最快，弓箭手最擅长远程攻击。
Creating a transitive game system that is dynamically balance often requires working with multiple attributes shared by each part in the system. For example, we can assign relative values to each of four attributes—Attack, Defense, Range, and Speed—shared by the three unit types—Infantry, Cavalry, and Archers. By configuring the attribute values such that each has the same number of points overall, shown as + in Table 9.1, we achieve a first level of balance: none of the unit types has more overall capability than another (each has the same number of + overall). The different unit types have different distributions of these points: Infantry are best at attacking, Cavalry are fastest, and Archers are best at ranged attacks.
表 9.1不同单位类型的传递平衡
Table 9.1 Transitive Balance Across Unit Types
单位类型 Unit Type |
攻击 Attack |
防御 Defense |
范围 Range |
速度 Speed |
步兵 Infantry |
+++ +++ |
++ ++ |
+ + |
+ + |
骑兵 Cavalry |
++ ++ |
+ + |
+ + |
+++ +++ |
弓箭手 Archers |
+ + |
+ + |
+++ +++ |
++ ++ |
用文字表达，该表表明以下内容：
Put into words, the table indicates that the following:
步兵战胜骑兵：步兵的攻击力 +++ 战胜骑兵的防御力 +。骑兵虽然可以逃跑，但他们无法取胜：如果步兵靠近他们，骑兵就会失败。
Infantry beats Cavalry: Infantry’s Attack of +++ beats cavalry’s Defense of +. While the Cavalry can run away, they cannot win: if the Infantry closes with them, the Cavalry will lose.
骑兵胜过弓箭手：骑兵的攻击力++胜过弓箭手的防御+，而且骑兵的速度+++意味着弓箭手即使有速度++也逃跑不了。
Cavalry beats Archers: Cavalry’s Attack of ++ beats Archers’ Defense of +, and the Cavalry’s Speed of +++ means the Archers can’t run away with Speed ++.
弓箭手击败步兵：弓箭手的射程为 +++，而步兵的防御为 +。虽然步兵的攻击力更高，但弓箭手的移动速度更快，因此可以在步兵的攻击范围之外射出箭雨。
Archers beat Infantry: Archers’ Range of +++ beats the Infantry’s Defense of +. While the Infantry has a higher Attack, the Archers move faster and so can stay out of range of the Infantry’s attacks while raining arrows down on them.
这创造了一个过渡平衡的战斗生态系统，每个部分都能打败一个，但也会遭到另一个的打败。它为玩家设置了一个引人入胜的决策空间，玩家必须决定如何最好地分配和部署单位，以利用地形、单位发展、对手的潜在弱点，以及存在于这个过渡战斗系统之外（或高于这个系统级别）并可能扰乱其行为的其他因素。
This creates a transitively balanced combat ecology, with each part able to beat one and be beaten by another. It sets up an engaging decision-space for the player, who must decide how best to assign and deploy units to take advantage of the terrain, unit development, the opponent’s potential weaknesses, and other factors that exist outside (or at a higher systemic level than) this transitive combat system and can perturb its behavior.
理解战斗系统是更大系统的一部分，突出了游戏测试仍然如此重要的原因：如果系统过于僵化平衡，对外界反应迟钝，影响，没有玩家会获得优势，游戏会反复进行而得不到解决。或者，如果玩家发现，例如，岩石地形使弓箭手无敌，那么这将成为唯一的获胜策略。在这种情况下，玩家的决策空间会坍缩为一条路径，传递平衡不再重要。通过在不同条件下进行游戏测试，您可以确保战斗生态系统的平衡足够强大，可以保持对外部条件（地形、天气、游戏风格等）的弹性，但不会变得静态和不可改变或简化为单一策略。游戏仍然必须受到玩家行为和其他外部影响的干扰，以便玩家在尝试实现目标时做出有意义的决定并尝试多种策略。
Understanding that the combat system exists as part of a larger system highlights why playtesting is still so important: if the system is too rigidly balanced and unresponsive to outside influences, no player will ever gain an advantage, and the game will grind back and forth without resolution. Alternatively, if players figure out that, for example, rocky terrain makes archers invincible, then this becomes the sole winning strategy. In such cases, the player’s decision-space collapses to a single path, and the transitive balance no longer matters. By playtesting this under different conditions, you can make sure that the balance of the combat ecology is robust enough that it can remain resilient to outside conditions (terrain, weather, play styles, and so on) but without becoming static and unchangeable or reducible to a single strategy. The game must still be perturbable by the player’s actions and other external influences, such that the player has meaningful decisions to make and multiple strategies to try in attempting to reach their goals.
不及物平衡
Intransitive Balance
在上一节中描述的具有传递平衡的系统中，没有任何部分比其他部分更好；每个部分都比其他部分的一半好，也比其他部分的一半差。但请注意，对于任何给定的一对零件，总有一个零件比另一个零件好（总是或概率上）。在上面给出的例子中，步兵部队击败了骑兵部队；在这一对中，一个获胜，另一个失败。单独来看，这是一个非传递平衡的例子：有些零件就是比其他零件好。
In systems like those described in the preceding section with transitive balance, no part is better than all the others; each is better than half and worse than half of the other parts. Note, however, that for any given pair of parts, one will be better than the other (always, or probabilistically). In the example given above, Infantry units beat Cavalry; within that one pair, one wins and the other loses. Taken alone, that is an instance of intransitive balance: some parts are just better than others.
虽然这似乎本质上是不平衡的，但它只是实现系统和游戏整体平衡的另一种方式。与传递平衡（使所有部分在系统层面上实际上相等）不同，非传递平衡是根据各部分的成本和收益来平衡的。有些部分必然具有更大的收益，但它们的成本也相应更高。
While that may seem to be inherently unbalanced, it is just a different way of achieving overall balance in the system and in the game. Rather than balancing all the parts against each other, as with transitive balance (making all parts effectively equal at the system level), with intransitive balance, parts are balanced on the basis of their costs and benefits. Some parts necessarily have greater benefits, but they also have proportionately higher costs.
具有非及物平衡性的系统出现在大多数包含某种形式的进度系统的游戏中。在此类游戏中，游戏体验包括（通常作为核心循环的一部分）某种形式的增加、成就或进步。当游戏的关键部分（玩家的角色、他们使用的物品、他们的军队、农作物数量等）的效率或（找不到更好的词来形容）增加时，就会出现这种情况。
Systems with intransitive balance appear in most games that include some form of progression system. In such games, the play experience includes (typically as part of the core loop) some form of increase, achievement, or progress. This is the case when key parts of the game—the player’s character, the objects they use, their armies, the number of crops, and so on—increase in effectiveness or, for lack of a better word, power.
这种平衡游戏中物体或部件的方法具有直观意义：玩家会认为生锈的钝匕首比永恒锋利的艾德曼金属巨剑便宜。考虑到这两种武器各自的属性，它们的成本差异有多大，这是游戏设计中需要回答的难题。确保同一系统中各部件的成本和收益保持成比例通常需要一定量的工作来定义部件类型之间的数学关系，以及大量的迭代以确保所有关系保持平衡并使游戏玩法引人入胜。
This method of balancing objects or parts in the game makes intuitive sense: a player would expect a rusty dull dagger to cost less than an adamantium greatsword of eternal sharpness. How big the difference is between the costs of these two weapons, given their respective attributes, is the difficult question that needs to be answered in the game design. Making sure the costs and benefits across parts in the same system remain proportional typically requires a certain amount of work to define the mathematical relationship between types of parts, as well as a lot of iteration to make sure all the relationships remain balanced and make for engaging gameplay.
为了平衡非及物系统，你需要定义必要的级数或功率曲线，这本身就需要定义它所描述的成本和收益。这是第 10 章的主题。
To balance intransitive systems, you need to define the necessary progression or power curve, which itself entails defining the costs and benefits it describes. This is the topic of Chapter 10.
概括
Summary
游戏平衡可能是一种难以追求的品质，但它却是每个游戏都需要的。您需要熟悉平衡游戏系统的各种方法：基于设计师、基于玩家、分析和数学。了解何时以及如何使用每种方法是培养您作为游戏设计师的技能的重要组成部分。
Game balance can be an elusive quality to pursue, and yet it’s one that every game needs. You need to be familiar with the various ways of balancing game systems: designer-based, player-based, analytical, and mathematical. Knowing when and how to use each of these methods is an important part of building your skill as a game designer.
同样，了解如何构建和平衡及物和非及物系统对于实现整体游戏平衡也是必不可少的。第 10 章介绍了创建进度曲线和平衡系统的具体内容。
Similarly, understanding how to build and balance both transitive and intransitive systems is necessary to achieve overall game balance. The specifics of creating progression curves and balancing systems with them are covered in Chapter 10.
1.不幸的是，面对其他游戏中类似的难度认知，一些游戏设计师却退缩到“学会玩”的态度之下。这对玩家没有帮助，也表明设计师不了解他们在为他人提供引人入胜的体验方面所扮演的角色。
1. Unfortunately, faced with similar perceptions of difficulty in other games, some game designers have retreated behind the attitude “learn to play.” This is not helpful for the players and shows that the designers do not understand their role in providing an engaging experience for others.
2.如果您不熟悉所有这些术语，那么一个简单但有效的记忆方法是用这首古老的童谣：“嘿，中位数就是中间；你加减乘除就是平均值。众数是出现次数最多的数，极差是两者之间的差值！”
2. If you’re not familiar with all these terms, a silly but effective way to remember them is this version of an old nursery rhyme: “Hey diddle diddle, the median’s the middle; you add and divide for the mean. The mode is the one that appears the most, and the range is the difference between!”
第十章
CHAPTER 10
游戏平衡练习
GAME BALANCE PRACTICE
许多实际的游戏设计都涉及使用进度和功率曲线来平衡部件和系统。这需要了解游戏系统中的资源成本和收益。
A lot of practical game design involves balancing parts and systems using progression and power curves. This requires understanding the resources in your game systems as costs and benefits.
通过使用各种数学工具，您可以在游戏中创建动态平衡，而不会减少玩家的决策空间。通过使用分析工具，您可以根据玩家的体验评估和调整游戏的平衡性。
By using a variety of mathematical tools, you can create dynamic balance in a game without reducing the decision-space for the player. And by using analytical tools, you can assess and tune the game’s balance based on the players’ experiences.
将方法付诸实践
Putting Methods into Practice
平衡游戏系统需要大量实际工作，包括使用各种形式的数学、电子表格和分析模型。您必须确定每个系统中的核心资源，并开始围绕它们进行平衡。这使您能够确定系统中每个部分的成本和收益，以及各部分在此基础上如何相互关联。有了这些知识以及对使用不同类型的建模曲线的更深入了解，您就可以更有效地平衡游戏系统。
Balancing game systems requires a lot of nuts-and-bolts work with various forms of math, spreadsheets, and analytical models. You have to identify the core resources in each system and begin to balance around them. This enables you to identify both the costs and benefits in every part in the system and how the parts relate to each other on that basis. Armed with that and a deeper understanding of using different kinds of modeled curves, you can balance your game’s systems more effectively.
创建进程和功率曲线
Creating Progression and Power Curves
用于帮助平衡游戏系统（尤其是不及物系统）的最常见数学建模工具之一是描述力量和进程增长的曲线。这些曲线有助于确保游戏中的对象（包括物理和非物理对象，例如武器和经验值等级）保持相互平衡。
One of the most common mathematical modeling tools used to help balance game systems, especially intransitive ones, is curves describing increases of power and progression. These curves help ensure that objects in a game—both physical and nonphysical, such as weapons and experience point levels—remain balanced in relationship to each other.
这些曲线的使用基于两个理念。首先，游戏中每项好处都有成本。成本上升，好处也会上升，反之亦然；它们密不可分。玩家无法支付更高的成本来获得额外好处，这是限制游戏节奏的原因，但同时仍能让玩家感到自己在进步。
The use of these curves is based on two ideas. First, there is a cost for every benefit in a game. As the costs rise, so too do the benefits, and vice versa; they are inextricably linked. The delay in the player being able to pay higher costs for additional benefits is what constrains the game’s pace while still allowing the player to feel that they are improving.
其次，玩家的代表和他们使用（或反对他们的）对象都会通过获得属性值提升的收益在游戏中前进。通过定义调节游戏中相关成本和收益进展的曲线，您可以确保玩家的能力和挑战以您为游戏节奏设定的速度提高。
Second, both the player’s representation and the objects they use (or that oppose them) move ahead in the game by gaining benefits in the form of improved values on their attributes. By defining curves that regulate the progression of linked costs and benefits in a game, you can make sure that players improve in ability and challenge at the rate you intend for the pace of the game.
定义成本和收益
Defining Costs and Benefits
要创建和使用力量和进度曲线，首先必须定义要通过曲线关联并保持成比例的成本和收益。只要成本和收益保持可实现且步调一致，这将有助于玩家感受到前进的感觉，游戏也将保持吸引力和乐趣。
To create and use power and progression curves, you first have to define both the costs and benefits that are to be correlated and kept proportional by a curve. As long as costs and benefits remain achievable and in step with each other, this will help the player feel a sense of forward progress, and the game will remain engaging and enjoyable.
任何力量或进程曲线背后的成本和收益之间的关系都是经济关系（第 7 章“创建游戏循环”中引入的术语“经济”的含义）。玩家用成本换取想要的收益。作为这种交换的结果，玩家必须相信他们已经有意义地提高了他们在游戏中的力量或能力，这对他们有利。如果玩家在升级（升级或获得游戏中的额外单位）后感觉自己变得更糟，那么资源（经验值、导致交换的货币（例如，金钱等）将失去价值，玩家的参与度也会减弱。
The relationship between the costs and benefits underlying any power or progression curve is an economic one (in the sense of the term economic introduced in Chapter 7, “Creating Game Loops”). The costs are exchanged by the player for the benefits desired. As a result of this exchange, the player must believe that they have meaningfully increased their power or ability in the game to their benefit. If the player feels that they are worse off after having advanced—gone up a level or gained additional units in their game—the resources (experience points, gold, and so on) that led to the exchange would lose their value, and the player’s engagement would be weakened.
成本和收益通常都以与玩家相关的属性来表示，因此都是资源。成本可能基于经验值（例如升级到新级别）、游戏货币、商品、赢得的战斗、饲养的动物或任何其他代表游戏中重要资源的东西。同样，收益包括获得更多健康、魔法力量、卡牌、省份、行动点等变化——无论什么资源推动玩家在游戏中前进。
Both costs and benefits are typically expressed in terms of attributes relevant to the player and are thus resources. The costs may be based on experience points (such as for progression to a new level), in-game currency, commodities, battles won, animals raised, or anything else that represents an important resource in the game. Likewise, the benefits include changes like gaining more health, magic power, cards, provinces, action points, and so on—whatever is the resource that drives the player forward in the game.
核心资源
进程或力量曲线越重要，所涉及的资源就越有意义和重要。在大多数游戏中，玩家会尝试最大化和/或不失去一种或最多几种资源以继续游戏。（这些资源不一定相同；想象一下在经典街机视频游戏中试图获得高分和拥有剩余的生命数。）由于这些资源与玩家玩游戏时的注意力密切相关，因此它们也与游戏的核心循环密切相关。因此，我们称这些为核心资源。核心资源的例子包括大多数角色扮演游戏中的生命值和经验值、大亨游戏中的金钱以及策略游戏中控制的区域数量。
The more important the progression or power curve, the more meaningful and important the resources involved must be. In most games, there is one or at most a few resources that a player is trying to maximize and/or not lose to keep playing. (These are not necessarily the same; think of trying to achieve high score and having a remaining number of lives in a classic arcade video game.) Because these resources are closely connected to the player’s focus in playing the game, they are intimately related to the game’s core loops as well. Therefore, we call these core resources. Examples of core resources include health and experience points in most role-playing games, money in tycoon games, and the amount of area controlled in strategy games.
要找到游戏的核心资源，请查看你为游戏各个部分创建的电子表格中的数据，如第 8 章“定义游戏部分”中所述。此数据应在列中描述所有属性，并在行中包含命名的部分。你要寻找玩家最依赖的属性。玩家需要哪些资源（由部件属性表示）来玩游戏，如果没有这些资源他们就无法继续玩游戏？这些就是核心资源。如果游戏有多个循环，并且玩家在不同时间关注每个循环，则可能存在多个核心资源。不过，对于游戏任何给定部分的进展和力量，你通常能够识别出一个特别突出的核心循环及其伴随的资源。
To find your game’s core resource(s), review the data in the spreadsheet you created for your game’s parts, as discussed in Chapter 8, “Defining Game Parts.” This data should describe all the attributes in the columns and have the named parts in the rows. You want to look for the attributes on which your players depend most. What are the resources (as represented by the part attributes) that the player needs to play the game and without which they cannot continue playing? These are core resources. There may be multiple core resources if there are multiple loops to the game, with the player focused on each one at different times. For progression and power in any given part of the game, though, you will typically be able to identify a particularly prominent core loop and the resource that goes with it.
如果您确定了多个核心资源候选者，请查看其中是否有一个实际上可以覆盖所有其他资源。您可能希望用来平衡各个部分的核心资源是其他几个属性协同作用的结果。或者，查看游戏玩法是否是资源连续的 - 例如，在游戏的不同阶段，所有玩家首先依赖健康，然后依赖财富，然后依赖社会地位。虽然这是三种完全不同的资源，但您可以定义一个包含每种资源的单一总体影子资源（您看到但未在游戏中明显表示的资源），然后将其用作您的进度和电力成本的基础。
If you identify multiple candidates for core resources, see if one of them actually overarches all the others. It may be that the core resource you want to use in balancing the parts is an emergent result of the synergy of several other attributes. Alternatively, see if the gameplay is such that the resources are sequential—for example, a game where all the players depend first on health, then on wealth, then on social standing during different phases of the game. While these are three entirely different resources, you may be able to define a single overarching shadow resource (one that you see but that is not overtly represented in the game) that contains each of these and then use that as the basis for your progression and power costs.
或者，如果主要资源确实不相称，你需要为每一种资源创建一个进度曲线，特别注意玩家如何从一个资源切换到下一个资源，而不会失去他们的动力或对游戏的参与度。然而，你希望尽可能地确定一种核心资源是成本或收益的支柱为您的主要进程或力量曲线。这可能需要一些时间才能完成 — 甚至需要重新组织您在游戏部分使用的属性 — 但如果这能让您创建游戏所需的非及物性、渐进性平衡，那么这是值得的。
Alternatively, if the main resources really are incommensurate, you will need to create a progression curve for each one, paying special attention to how the player hands off from one to the next without losing their momentum or engagement with the game. As much as possible, however, you want to identify one core resource to be the mainstay of either the cost or benefit for your primary progression or power curve. This may take some time to do—even some reorganization of the attributes you’re using on the game parts—but it will be worth doing if it enables you to create the intransitive, progressive balance you need for your game.
子公司资源
确定游戏的核心资源将帮助您确定和创建对游戏最为重要的能力和进程曲线，然后在此基础上创建次要曲线。确定游戏的核心资源后，您就可以寻找支持（维护、改进、修复等）核心资源的其他资源。这些是用于进程和能力曲线的辅助资源。例如，在策略游戏中，控制区域的数量通常是核心资源。获得军队、防御工事或技术支持玩家获得和保留此资源的能力，因此对这些资源的收益会间接惠及“控制区域”资源。在以浪漫为导向的游戏中，玩家可能会尝试最大化与某个特定人的关系；如果是这样，那么这种关系就是核心资源。但为了最大化这种关系，玩家可能需要朋友、金钱、信息等，这些都构成了辅助资源。
Identifying the game’s core resources will help you identify and create the power and progression curves that are most central to your game and then create secondary curves based on them. Having identified your game’s core resources, you can then look for other resources that support (maintain, improve, repair, and so on) the core ones. These are subsidiary resources to use in progression and power curves. For example, in a strategy game, the amount of area controlled is often the core resource. Gaining armies, fortifications, or technology supports the player’s ability to gain and keep this resource, so benefits to those are indirectly benefits to the “area controlled” resource. In a romance-oriented game, the player might be trying to maximize their relationship with one particular person; if so, that relationship is the core resource. But to maximize that relationship, the player may need friends, money, information, and so on, which all constitute subsidiary resources.
特殊情况
在尝试创建和分类您想要平衡的成本和收益时，除了核心资源和辅助资源之外，您有时会发现一些特殊资源，它们主要影响其他资源，并且本身具有有限或周期性的影响。例如，假设游戏是关于驾驶一艘宇宙飞船穿越危险的小行星带。玩家的目标是使用飞船收集矿石，并利用矿石最大限度地提高飞船的速度和装甲。矿石可能是您的核心资源，速度和装甲是辅助资源。但进一步假设飞船具有加速能力。这种加速只能偶尔进行，并且使用时会对飞船造成轻微损坏。这种加速并不是核心循环的重要组成部分，但它有时很重要。它主要影响辅助资源（速度和装甲），但很难确定它到底有多重要：这种能力在玩家需要它之前根本不重要，然后它就变得非常重要了！
In trying to create and catalog the costs and benefits you want to balance, in addition to core and subsidiary resources, you will sometimes find special case resources that primarily affect the other resources and have either a limited or periodic effects on their own. Suppose, for example, that the game is about piloting a spaceship through a dangerous asteroid field. The player’s goal is to use the ship to gather ore and to use that ore to maximize the ship’s speed and armor. The ore might be your core resource, with speed and armor subsidiary ones. But suppose further that the ship has an ability to do a speed boost. This boost can only be done once in a while, and when used, it damages the ship a little. This speed boost isn’t a vital part of the core loop, but it is important from time to time. It mainly affects the subsidiary resources (speed and armor) but in a way that makes it difficult to determine exactly how important it is: this kind of ability isn’t important at all until the player needs it, and then it’s very important!
您可以在此基础上叠加另一种特殊情况：假设玩家可以使用一些矿石（成本）来增加提升的持续时间或减少其充电时间（两种好处）。确保这些与直接数字属性（整体速度、装甲、载货空间等）的增加成比例是很难做到的。虽然在某些情况下，特别擅长数学的设计师可以创建一个方程，将所有内容代数地归结为一个单一的好处 - 一个单一的总体阴影资源，如本章前面所述 - 但这也可能是一个无限后退的目标，永远不会完全实现。或者，您可以创建这样的资源方程，但这样做可能会降低游戏的维度，使不同属性之间的权衡关系对玩家来说太明显。
You can stack another special case on top of this: suppose the player can use some ore (a cost) to either increase the boost’s duration or reduce its recharge time (both benefits). Making sure these are proportional to an increase in a straight numeric attribute (overall speed, armor, cargo space, and so on) is difficult to do. While in some cases designers who are particularly mathematically inclined can create an equation that algebraically reduces everything down to a single benefit—a single overarching shadow resource, as described earlier in this chapter—this can also be an infinitely receding goal that never quite works. Alternatively, you may be able to create such a resource equation, but in so doing you may have reduced the dimensionality of your game, making the trade-off relationships between different attributes too obvious to the player.
所有这些都指向一个现实：虽然数学工具可以帮助你更快、更有效地平衡游戏，但你不可避免地必须关联一些成本和收益启发式地，根据您自己的直觉和您认为对游戏最有利的方式。尽可能多地以迭代方式进行游戏测试，以跟进此类更改。您可能会发现，这样做之后，成本和收益会接近一条特定曲线，但您可能无法提前预测到这条曲线。
All of this points back to the reality that while mathematical tools can help you balance your game faster and more effectively, you will inevitably have to correlate some costs and benefits heuristically, by your own intuition and what you see as best for the game. Follow up any such changes with as much playtesting as you can in an iterative fashion. You will likely find that after doing so, the costs and benefits fall close to a particular curve but one that you may not have been able to predict in advance.
定义成本效益曲线
Defining Cost–Benefit Curves
一旦你根据资源之间的平衡关系，对想要映射在一起的成本和收益有了想法，你就可以开始创建定义它们关系的曲线了。有几种不同的数学曲线对于创建平衡的游戏系统很有用。每种都有用途和好处，也有局限性。有时你会发现一条曲线对映射游戏属性很有用；在其他情况下，了解这些曲线的工作原理及其产生的效果可以指导如何创建与现有属性保持平衡的新游戏属性。
Once you have an idea of the costs and benefits you want to map together based on the resources being balanced against each other, you can begin creating the curve that defines their relationship. There are several different kinds of mathematical curves that are useful to know about for creating balanced game systems. Each has uses and benefits, as well as limitations. Sometimes you will find a curve useful for mapping game attributes; in other cases, understanding how these curves work and the effects they produce can be a guide for how to create new game attributes that remain in balance with existing ones.
线性曲线
谈论“线性曲线”可能听起来很奇怪。但在这种情况下，线性是一个几何术语，指的是任何具有稳定斜率的图形，这意味着始终具有相同的变化率。其公式为y = Ax + B，因此您可以通过将输入（成本）值x乘以某个数字A并向其添加一个常数B来获得任何y值（例如，游戏中的收益） 。通常B = 0，这意味着x和y在 0 处都相等。A 的值决定了斜率——y随x 的变化量。
It may sound strange to talk about a “linear curve.” But linear in this case is a geometric term that refers to any graph that has a steady slope, which means the same rate of change throughout. The formula for this is y = Ax + B, so you can get any y value (for example, an in-game benefit) by multiplying an input (cost) value x by some number A and adding a constant, B, to it. Often B = 0, meaning that x and y are both equal at 0. The value of A determines the slope—how much y changes as x does.
线性曲线是最简单的曲线，从某种程度上说，它在游戏用途上最为受限。在力量和进程曲线中，斜率通常是不断增加的，向上和向右移动。x上的A乘数为正，因此 y 的值会随着x 的增加而增加；也就是说，随着你的前进，你会变得更强大（或者至少是更大的数字）。x和y 的变化关系是线性的，因此 x 每次变化，y就会变化等于A 的量。这可以形成一个简单的图表：如果A = 2（且B = 0），那么当x = 1 时，y = 2。当x = 3 时，y = 6，并且此后x每次变化 1， y就会增加 2 。
The linear curve is the simplest of our curves, and in some ways it is the most limited for game uses. In power and progression curves, usually the slope is increasing, moving up and to the right. The A multiplier on x is positive, so values for y increase as x increases; that is, you get more powerful (or at least bigger numbers) as you go along. The relationship between the change in x and y is linear, so for every 1 change in x, y changes by an amount equal to A. This makes for a simple graph: if A = 2 (and B = 0), then when x = 1, y = 2. When x = 3, y = 6, and y goes up by 2 after that for every 1 change in x.
x越大， y的变化量越大，这意味着y的变化量占其整体值的比例在缩小。假设你使用的方程式为y = 2 x 。x 从8变为 10时y的变化量很大（大 25%），这表明游戏中某些值（如攻击力或防御力）从 16 变为 20。但是当x从 98 变为 100 时，y会从 196 变为 200。两种情况下的变化量相同（x增加了 2，因此y增加了 4），但第二种情况下的功能性变化要小得多，只大了 2%。从心理学角度来看，这会让享乐疲劳对玩家的体验产生不利影响：后一种变化可能会让玩家产生“那又怎样？”的反应，而不会让他们感觉获得了巨大的回报，尽管它的绝对幅度与前一种变化相同。因此，虽然线性曲线易于理解和实现，但它们在功率或进展曲线中本身并没有得到大量使用。
As x becomes larger, the change in y is the same—which means the change in y as a proportion of its overall value shrinks. Suppose again that the equation you are using is y = 2x. The change in y when x goes from 8 to 10 is significant (25% greater)—indicating a change of 16 to 20 in some in-game value, such as attack or defense. But when x goes from 98 to 100, y changes from 196 to 200. This is the same quantity of change in both cases (x increased by 2, so y increased by 4), but the functional change in the second case is far smaller—only 2% greater. In psychological terms, this allows hedonic fatigue to work against the player’s experience: the latter change might get a “so what?” reaction and not feel like a big reward, even though it’s of the same absolute magnitude change as the earlier one. As a result, while linear curves are easy to understand and implement, they aren’t used a great deal on their own in power or progression curves.
多项式曲线
在线性曲线中，y是x的倍数。在多项式曲线中，y是x的某个幂：y = x n，例如x 2或x 3。通常会有一个额外的数字用作乘数，因此y的增量可能等于 5 x 2或类似的值。在x上使用指数会导致y的值随着x的增加而增加，变化率（两个x值之间y值之间的量）也会增加。如果y = x 2，则对于x = 1、2、3、4、5 和y = 1、4、9、16、25。y值是x的平方值，它们之间的差每次都会变大。查看每个y值与前一个 y 值之间的差异，您可以看到变化率在增加：3、5、7、9。（您可能会注意到，这种趋势（变化率的变化率，也称为二阶差分）本身是线性的。这是多项式方程的性质。）
In linear curves, y is some multiple of x. In polynomial curves, y is x raised to some power: y = xn, such as x2 or x3. Often there are one more additional numbers used as multipliers, so you may have an increase in y equal to 5x2 or similar. This use of an exponent on x causes the value of y to increase as x increases, and the rate of change—the amount between each value of y for two values of x—also increases. If y = x2, then for x = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and y = 1, 4, 9, 16, 25. The y values are the squared values of x, and the difference between them gets larger each time. Looking at the difference between each y value and the one before, you can see the rate of change is increasing: 3, 5, 7, 9. (You may notice that this trend—the rate of change for the rate of change, also known as the second difference—is itself linear. This is a property of polynomial equations.)
y值之间的差异就是 Bateman (2006) 所说的基本进展比率。在线性曲线中，这个比率保持不变。在多项式中，随着x每一步y的差异增加，这个比率也会不断增加。然而，随着x变大， y的这种变化占整体y值的比例（总进展比率）会更接近 1.0，也就是更接近线性。正如我们在线性方程中看到的那样，虽然y值之间的距离不断增加，但作为y总量的一部分，这种增加的速度会减慢。换句话说，曲线会变平，因此在游戏术语中，基于多项式方程的曲线通常具有与线性曲线相同的问题：在高端，变化率似乎大致相同，从而降低了从一个级别（或y值）到另一个级别变化的影响。另一方面，曲线的平坦化也意味着，对于较高的x值， y的下一次变化不会像指数曲线那样遥不可及。
The difference between values of y is what Bateman (2006) has called a basic progression ratio. In linear curves, this ratio remains constant. In polynomials, it continues to increase as the difference in y for every step in x increases. However, as x becomes large, the proportion of this change in y to the overall y value (the total progression ratio) becomes closer to 1.0—that is, closer to being linear. As we saw with linear equations, although the distance between y values continues to increase, as a proportion of the overall amount of y, the rate of that increase slows down. Another way to say this is that the curve flattens out, and so in game terms, curves based on polynomial equations often have the same issues as linear curves: at the high end, the rate of change seems to be about the same, reducing the impact of a change from one level (or y value) to another. On the other hand, this flattening of the curve also means that the next change in y is not astronomically far off for high values of x, as happens with exponential curves.
多项式曲线的另一个有用属性是，二次多项式（您可能还记得高中时学过的形式为y = ax 2 + bx + c）是两个线性级数的乘积（Achterman 2011）。假设您有一款角色扮演游戏，其中玩家在每一级需要杀死的怪物数量呈线性增加：首先是 1，然后是 2、3、4、5，依此类推。这对于设计师和玩家来说都很简单。假设您从每只怪物身上获得的金币数量也呈线性增加：10、20、30、40，依此类推。同样，这很简单，并且易于构建为心理模型。但总体而言，这意味着您在每一级获得的金币数量不是线性增加，而是呈二次方增加，因为怪物数量的增加与金币数量的增加相结合。因此，您在每个级别获得的金币数量会以更快的速度增加——10、40、90、160、250 等等。这是两个系统相互作用以创造大于各部分之和的事物的一个很好的例子。
One other property of polynomial curves that can be useful to know is that a quadratic polynomial (which you may remember from high school in the form of y = ax2+bx+c) is the product of two linear progressions (Achterman 2011). Suppose you have a role-playing game where the number of monsters the player has to kill on each level increases linearly: first 1, then 2, 3, 4, 5, and so on. This is nice and simple for the designer and the player. Suppose that the amount of gold you gain from each monster also increases linearly: 10, 20, 30, 40, and so on. Again, this is simple and easy to build as a mental model. What this means overall, though, is that the amount of gold you gain on each level goes up not linearly but quadratically because you are combining an increased number of monsters with an increased amount of gold. The gold you gain on each level thus rises faster—as 10, 40, 90, 160, 250, and so on. This is a good example of two systems interacting to create something that is more than the sum of them as parts.
指数曲线
对于线性级数，y等于x的某个倍数。对于多项式级数，y等于x的某个指数幂。对于指数级数，x本身就是指数：y等于某个数的x次幂，如y = A x（或y = B × A x）。与多项式一样，变化率（即每个后续x值的 y 值之差）会随着x 的增加而增加；也就是说，跳跃会变得更大。与多项式方程不同，这个变化率不会趋于平缓，而是会随着每一步而不断增加。
With linear progressions, y equals some multiple of x. With polynomial progressions, y equals x to some exponential power. With exponential progressions, x is itself the exponent: y equals some number set to the power of x, as y = Ax (or y = B × Ax). As with polynomials, the rate of change—the difference in y-values for each succeeding x-value—increases as x increases; that is, the jumps get bigger. Unlike with polynomial equations, this rate does not flatten out but keeps increasing with every step.
让增长率继续变大，可能会让未来的步伐看起来大得难以企及。但是，如果被提升到x的基值A本身很小，曲线就不会增长太快。例如，RuneScape使用一个复杂的方程来表示经验点升级要求，其中包括一个指数方程 1.1 x，因此步伐增加相对较慢，至少一开始是这样。这对玩家来说很有效，因为早期的级别似乎可以达到，玩家可以快速通过（让玩家感到很有成就感），而后期的级别一开始在数字上似乎相差甚远，几乎需要超人的能力才能达到。然而，当玩家开始达到这些级别时，他们也会获得天文数字的经验值，因此他们会在个人胜利（数字奖励似乎并不微不足道）和获得的经验值总量方面感到持续的成就感。
Having the rate of increase continue to get larger can make future steps seem unreachably huge. However, if the base value A that is being raised to x is itself small, the curve doesn’t increase too fast. For example, RuneScape uses a complex equation for experience point leveling requirements that includes an exponential equation of 1.1x, so the steps increase relatively slowly, at least at first. This works well for players, as early levels seem attainable and players go through them fast (making players feel accomplished), while later ones seem at first to be so far off numerically as to almost require superhuman abilities to reach. By the time the players start reaching these levels, however, they are also gaining astronomical numbers of experience points, so they feel a continuing sense of achievement in both their individual victories (the numeric rewards do not seem paltry) and in their overall number of experience points gained.
虽然指数方程中y的增幅似乎总是随着x的增加而减小，但这些方程的总进展比率与y的任何当前值相比都很低。这意味着无论玩家处于进展曲线的哪个位置，“远处”的等级要求（或类似要求）看起来都高得不合理，但与当前总值相比，附近的等级要求似乎很容易达到。从玩家的角度来看，未来的进展值可能看起来像高山的顶峰，但与玩家已经走的距离相比，附近的斜坡似乎并不太陡峭。这有助于鼓励玩家继续沿着进展曲线前进（下一步似乎相对容易，因为他们已经完成了任务），而不会冒着享乐疲劳的风险，也不会觉得未来的回报不值得付出努力。
While the increase in y for any value of x in an exponential equation always seems to zoom off as x increases, the total progression ratio with these equations is low compared to any current value of y. This means that no matter where the player is on the progression curve, “far away” level requirements (or similar) look unreasonably high, but nearby it looks easily attainable compared to the current total value. From the player’s point of view, future progression values may look like the top of a high mountain, but nearby the slope never seems overly steep compared to how far the player has already come. This helps encourage the player to keep moving along the progression curve (the next step seems relatively easy with what they have already accomplished) without risking hedonic fatigue and the feeling that future rewards are not worth the effort.
指数曲线可能是游戏中最常用的进程和幂曲线形式。方程式的形式使其易于调整和拟合进程或对象值，而局部平坦度和后期高值的雄心壮志相结合，可以很好地鼓励玩家继续前进。另一方面，这些曲线较高端的值可能会非常惊人——达到数十亿、数万亿甚至更高。（如第 7 章所述， 《冒险资本家》中的指数进程曲线最高为 1 个十亿亿次方——即 1 后面跟着 300 个零。）这可能具有与线性进程相同的心理效应：一旦数字因其大小而变得难以想象（例如，1 千万亿和 1 千万亿之间的差异），它们就变得没有意义了。虽然对很多人来说，看到数字上升会带来一定的多巴胺分泌的快乐，但这本身容易产生享乐疲劳，如果过度追求，最终就会失去吸引力。
Exponential curves are probably the most commonly used form of progression and power curves for games. The form of the equations makes it easy to adjust and fit progression or object values, and the combination of the appearance of local flatness and aspirational awesomeness in later high values works well at encouraging players to keep moving forward. On the other hand, the values in the higher reaches of these curves can be staggering—well into the billions, trillions, or higher. (As mentioned in Chapter 7, the exponential progression curves in Adventure Capitalist top out at 1 novemnonagintillion—a 1 followed by 300 zeros.) This can have the same sort of psychological effect that occurs with linear progressions: once the numbers become difficult to imagine just due to their size (for example, the difference between 1 quadrillion and 1 quintillion), they become less meaningful. While there is for many people a certain dopamine-fed pleasure in seeing numbers go up,1 this by itself is subject to hedonic fatigue and, if pushed too far, eventually loses appeal.
对于进程，使用指数曲线可以帮助你设置适当的级别或其他检查点，以便玩家获得新的好处。在这样的系统中，玩家通常必须积累一定数量的积分（或其他资源，但我们将使用积分玩家需要完成一系列任务（例如，完成一个关卡（这里用作一般替身）才能越过下一个门槛）。随着玩家在游戏中不断前进，他们通常会面临更困难的挑战，从而获得更多积分。如前所述，这种增加难度和奖励的组合有助于避免享乐疲劳并为玩家提供成就感。但是如果玩家获得更多积分，则每个级别的门槛也需要分散，否则玩家会越来越快地达到目标。使用指数方程可以帮助您确定每个门槛所需的积分数：每个级别或门槛都是一个x值，达到该值所需的积分数是来自您使用的指数函数的相应y值。
For progression, using an exponential curve can help you set appropriate levels or other checkpoints where new benefits to the player are available. In such systems, typically the player has to build up a certain number of points (or other resource, but we will use points here as a general stand-in) that take them over the next threshold. As players progress in the game, they typically face more difficult challenges for which more points are awarded. As discussed earlier, this combination of increasing difficulty and reward helps avoid hedonic fatigue and provide the player with a sense of achievement. But if the player is getting more points, the thresholds for each level need to spread out, too, or the player will hit them faster and faster. Using an exponential equation can help you determine how many points are required for each threshold: each level or threshold is an x value, and the number of points required to attain that is the corresponding y value that comes from the exponential function you are using.
由于这些曲线的工作方式，基数（即您要提升到x所代表的某个幂的数字）可以为您提供一个很好的启发式方法，让您了解每一步会增加多少力量。如果您有一条由指数方程定义的曲线，如y = 1.4 x ，您就会知道，每一级的y值都会比上一级高 1.4 倍。虽然从一个级别上升到另一个级别并不极端，但在四级之后，每级所需的点数（或授予的力量）已经增加了一倍多。
Because of the way these curves work, the base—the number you’re raising to some power represented by x—gives you a good heuristic for how much power increases with each step. If you have a curve defined by an exponential equation like y = 1.4x, you know that with each level, the values for y will be 1.4 times higher than they were at the last level. While the rise from level to level is not extreme, after four levels, the points required per level (or power awarded) has more than doubled.
设置方程式组件可帮助您为挑战和奖励设置保持平衡的值（即，每个挑战获得的点数基于下一级别所需的点数）。通过上下移动基数（尝试 1.2、1.3、1.5 等），您可以平衡挑战、力量和奖励，以获得您想要的游戏增长时间，甚至可能是翻倍时间。
Setting the equation components helps you set values for challenges and rewards that remain balanced with each other (that is, the points awarded for each challenge based on the number of points needed for the next level). By moving the base up and down (trying 1.2, 1.3, 1.5, and so on), you can balance challenges, power, and rewards to have the rise and perhaps the doubling time that you want for your game.
表 10.1显示了方程 XP = 1,000 × 1.4级别的样例值，这在典型的角色扮演游戏中很常见。请注意，数值在各个级别之间缓慢增加，但随后却变得非常大。对于任何给定的级别过渡，大约 1.4 的总进展比率（基于方程，但由于四舍五入而不精确）并非不合理；考虑到玩家已经获得的点数，任何“下一级别”所需的点数似乎并不多。还请注意，在此示例中，为清楚起见，已将值四舍五入到最接近的 100，并且级别 1 被任意设置为 0，而不是 1,400，这在数学上是正确的。
Table 10.1 shows sample values for the equation XP = 1,000 × 1.4level, as might be seen in a typical role-playing game. Note how the values increase slowly from level to level but nevertheless later become enormous. For any given level-to-level transition, the total progression ratio of about 1.4 (based on the equation, though not exact due to rounding) is not unreasonable; the number of points needed for any “next level” do not seem so huge, given the number of points the player has already achieved. Note also that in this example, the values have been rounded to the nearest 100 for clarity, and level 1 was arbitrarily set to 0 rather than 1,400, as would be mathematically correct.
表 10.1每级所需经验值（XP）示例，假设 XP = 1,000 × 1.4级
Table 10.1 Examples of Experience Points (XP) Needed per Level, Given XP = 1,000 × 1.4level
等级 Level |
所需经验 XP Needed |
等级 Level |
所需经验 XP Needed |
1 1 |
0 0 |
10 10 |
28,900 28,900 |
2 2 |
2,000 2,000 |
15 15 |
155,600 155,600 |
3 3 |
2,700 2,700 |
20 20 |
836,700 836,700 |
4 4 |
3,800 3,800 |
二十五 25 |
4,499,900 4,499,900 |
5 5 |
5,400 5,400 |
三十 30 |
24,201,400 24,201,400 |
设置方程值的过程不是自动的：作为游戏设计师，你需要决定玩家应该多快（就时间、战斗次数等而言）达到每个阈值，挑战应该有多激烈，以及奖励应该有多大。使用指数（或类似）函数可以帮助你确保这些都相互平衡。例如，如果你有一款游戏，其中每个级别（或步骤或检查点）的挑战都会增加 3 倍（3 x），但以核心资源（健康、攻击力等）形式出现的奖励只增加了 1.25 倍（1.25 x），那么这款游戏很快就会变得无法玩，因为玩家会发现挑战的增加速度远远超过他们应对挑战的能力。
The process of setting the equation values isn’t automatic: as the game designer, you need to decide how quickly (in terms of time, number of battles, and so on) the player should hit each threshold, how strong the challenges should be, and how big the rewards should be. Using an exponential (or similar) function helps you ensure that these are all balanced against each other. If, for example, you had a game where the challenges were going up at each level (or step or checkpoint) by a factor of 3 (3x) but rewards in the form of the core resource—health, attack power, and so on—were going up only by a factor of 1.25 (1.25x), the game would quickly become unplayable, as players would experience the challenges ramping up far faster than their ability to meet them.
最终，玩家必须完成多少任务或杀死多少怪物才能获得下一个能力提升，从而面对更大的挑战，这些问题的答案取决于你作为游戏设计师。虽然数学肯定有帮助，但与任何其他定量方法一样，最终你还是必须依靠游戏测试和你作为设计师的判断。了解游戏中的数学知识将帮助你了解玩家是否过快地完成游戏或因感觉无法前进而感到沮丧，但数学无法具体告诉你如何在游戏中解决这些问题。
Ultimately, the answers to questions of how many missions the player must complete or monsters they must kill before they get the next bump in abilities that will allow them to face even greater challenges are up to you as a game designer. While the math definitely helps, as with any other quantitative method, eventually you have to fall back on playtesting and your own judgment as a designer. Understanding the mathematics within your game will help you understand if the players are burning through the game too quickly or are frustrated because they feel like they cannot advance, but the math cannot tell you specifically to resolve these questions in your game.
逻辑曲线
一类称为逻辑函数的曲线在游戏平衡中较少使用，但仍然值得了解，它们有时也因其S形而被称为S 形曲线。这些曲线通常用于模拟和人工智能，具有可用于创建具有特定动态平衡的功率曲线的属性。特别是，这些曲线很好地模拟了许多现实世界的过程，例如学习和生态过程，这些过程最初增长缓慢，然后经历快速扩张，然后随着资源的消耗而减慢。
Less often used for game balance but still useful to know about are a class of curves called logistic functions, also sometimes known as sigmoid curves for their s-shape. These curves are commonly used in simulations and artificial intelligence and have properties that are useful for creating power curves with a particular kind of dynamic balance. In particular, these curves mimic well many real-world processes, such as learning, and ecological processes with initially slow growth that then goes through rapid expansion that then slows down as resources are consumed.
该曲线的数学函数比其他曲线的数学函数稍微复杂一些：
The mathematical function for this curve is a bit more complicated than the math for the others:
这看起来可能有点吓人，但也不是太糟糕：
This may look kind of scary, but it’s not too bad:
L = 曲线的最大值——您希望它达到的最高点
L = the curve’s maximum value—where you want it to top out
e = 欧拉常数，这是一个数学常数，约等于 2.718
e = Euler’s number, which is a mathematical constant equal to about 2.718
k = 曲线的陡度（您可以使中间的增加变缓或变陡。）
k = the steepness of the curve (You can make the increase in the middle shallow or steep.)
x 0 =曲线中点的x值（曲线下半部分x小于此值，而上半部分大于此值。）
x0 = the x-value at the curve’s midpoint (The lower half of the curve is less than this in x, and the upper half is greater than this.)
逻辑函数提供的曲线形状是这样的：随着x 的增加，y值一开始缓慢增加，然后迅速增加，然后再次缓慢增加，最后趋向于完全没有变化（见图10.1）。这种曲线可用于创建不同的对象，其中力量一开始缓慢增加（例如，需要玩家进行更长期的投资才能前进），然后随着玩家继续游戏而迅速获得收益，力量迅速增加中间范围，最后达到上限的收益递减，继续投资产生的收益会越来越少。
The shape of a curve provided by the logistic function is such that as x increases, the y-value increases slowly at first, then rapidly, then slowly again, then heading toward no change at all (see Figure 10.1). This kind of curve can be useful for creating different objects where the power increases slowly at first (requiring longer-term investment by players to move forward, for example), then rapidly as players quickly gain benefits for continuing in the middle range, and finally hitting diminishing returns on the upper end, where continued investment yields less and less benefit.
这种曲线为玩家创造了一个有趣的非线性功率曲线之旅，并且不会像指数曲线那样因x每次变化而导致y值急剧变化。例如，您可以使用“堆叠”逻辑曲线为玩家创建有趣的战略决策，每个逻辑曲线都代表不同资源的增长。为了有效地爬上这条进展曲线，玩家需要决定何时从一种资源切换到另一种资源，因为第一种资源的收益开始递减。图10.2显示了使用四种不同资源和不同逻辑曲线形状的示例。这种堆叠安排可以增加经济中价值的广度而不会使整个经济不平衡，并且它提供了指数曲线在多条逻辑曲线之间快速上升的效果。实际上，如果经济中代表的每种资源或对象都沿着其曲线保持平衡，那么整个经济就可能比您尝试沿着一条曲线平衡相同范围更容易平衡。
This type of curve creates an interesting nonlinear journey up the power curve for the player, and it does not suffer from the skyrocketing change in y values for each change in x that is seen in exponential curves. You can, for example, create interesting strategic decisions for a player by using “stacked” logistic curves, with each referring to an increase for a different resource. To effectively climb up this progression curve, the player needs to decide when to change from one to another as the first begins to hit diminishing returns. An example using four different resources with different logistic curve shapes is shown in Figure 10.2. This stacking arrangement can increase the breadth of values in an economy without unbalancing the whole thing, and it provides the fast-rise effects of an exponential curve divided among multiple logistic curves. In effect, if each resource or object represented in the economy is balanced along its curve, the whole economy is likely to be more easily balanced than if you tried to balance the same range along a single curve.
图 10.2由四条堆叠的逻辑曲线组成的功率进展曲线，每条曲线对应一种单独的游戏内资源
Figure 10.2 A power progression curve made from four stacked logistic curves, each corresponding to a separate in-game resource
分段线性曲线
游戏设计师经常发现自己不想将进程或力量归结为一个纯粹的方程式，或者不想让游戏进程的基础方程式平滑变化。这种平滑本身可能会变得有点无聊，尤其是当它与物体力量相关时：玩家知道物体力量增长的速率或曲线，无需考虑或做出决定；玩家知道 + n把剑的力量总是比n - 1 把剑好一些。即使增加本身不是线性的，玩家也会开始直观地这样想，尤其是当进程曲线中涉及的力量比率是线性的时候。
Game designers often find themselves not wanting to fit progression or power to a pure equation or not wanting a smoothly changing equation underlying their game’s progression. This smoothness can itself become kind of boring, especially if it’s related to object power: the player knows the rate or the curve along which objects will grow in power, and there’s no need to think about it or make decisions about it; the player knows that a +n sword will always be a certain amount better than an n − 1 power sword. Even if the increase itself isn’t linear, players will begin to intuitively think of it this way, especially if the power ratios involved in the progression curve are linear.
解决此问题的一个方法是手工绘制级数和幂曲线，要么从零开始，要么从基础方程开始并离开。一种方法是用一系列重叠的线性曲线来近似指数曲线。这被称为分段线性曲线，可以通过加法或线性插值构建曲线（如果您不是数学专家，这并不像听起来那么可怕）。
One solution to this is to hand-craft progression and power curves, either from nothing or by starting with and departing from an underlying equation. One way to do this is to approximate an exponential curve with a series of overlapping linear curves. This is known as a piecewise-linear curve and is made either by constructing the curve by addition or by linear interpolation (which, if you are not a math person, is not as scary as it may sound).
假设您想为角色扮演游戏中的角色奖励生命值（健康值），奖励速率在几个级别内保持不变，然后逐渐增加。假设角色在 1-10 级每级获得 2 点生命值，在 11-20 级每级获得 5 点生命值，在 21-30 级每级获得 10 点生命值。知道这些数字后，在电子表格中创建一个表格就很简单了，首先设置 1 级的基本生命值，比如 12。（对于生命值之类的值，你希望这个值大于 0，在本例中，12 可以使图形更美观。）然后，每升一级到 10 级，就加 2，使 10 级的总生命值达到 30。然后，每升一级加 5，使玩家在 20 级时的生命值达到 80。然后，每升一级加 10，使玩家在 30 级时的生命值达到 180。这会创建一个易于理解的分段线性曲线，如图10.3所示。
Suppose you want to award hit points (health) for characters in a RPG at a rate that’s constant for a few levels and then increases. Say that characters gets 2 hit points per level in levels 1–10, 5 per level in levels 11–20, and 10 per level in levels 21–30. Given that you know those numbers, it’s a simple matter to create a table in a spreadsheet starting with a base number of hit points for level 1, say 12. (For something like hit points, you want this to be more than 0, and in this example, 12 makes for a nicer graph.) Then with each level up to level 10, you add 2 to that, bringing the total to 30 at level 10. From there you add 5 with each level, taking the player to 80 hit points at level 20. Then you start adding 10 per level, taking the player to 180 hit points at level 30. This creates an easily understood piecewise linear curve, as shown in Figure 10.3.
但是，有时您可能无法简单地通过加法来计算点数。相反，您可以根据功率增加的类型和想要看到的值使用线性插值来创建图表。
However, sometimes you may not be able to simply count up the points by addition. Instead, you can use linear interpolation to create the graph, based on the kind of power increase and values you want to see.
假设在这种情况下，您想要创建一个生命值曲线，该曲线一开始很慢，但随后会真正加速（这样玩家就会感到有成就感，并可以面对更艰巨的挑战）。您知道您希望从较低的生命值开始，例如 2，并且您希望在 10 级时获得 20 分。但是，您希望这个数字上升得更快，这样玩家角色在 20 级时就有 100 分。鉴于此，您可以轻松构建这些点（1、10 和 20 级）之间的线性曲线。
Suppose in this case that you want to create a hit point curve that starts slow but then really takes off (so the player feels rewarded and can face tougher challenges). You know you want to start with a low number of hit points, such as 2, and you want to have awarded 20 points by level 10. But then you want the number to go up faster, so the player character has 100 by level 20. Given that, you can easily construct the linear curves between these points (levels 1, 10, and 20).
要插入第一个段，请从较高的y值（生命值点数）中减去较低的 y 值：20 − 2 = 18。然后得到较高的x值（级别）减去较低的 x 值：10 − 1 = 9。最后，将第一个（y值）除以第二个（x值）：18/9 = 2。以等式形式，您将得到以下内容：
To interpolate the first segment, subtract the lower y-value (the number of hit points) from the higher: 20 − 2 = 18. Then get the higher x value (the level) minus the lower one: 10 − 1 = 9. Finally, divide the first (the y-values) by the second (the x-values): 18/9 = 2. In equation form, this is what you have:
因此，每级可获得 2 个点（这与说这条线的斜率为 2 完全相同）。然后，对下一段做同样的事情。较大的y值y 1是所需的最大生命值 100，较低的y 0是 20，与上一段的上限值相同。较大的x值x 1是指定的最高级别 20。较小的x值x 0是前一个最高级别 10。使用上面的等式，可得到 100 − 20 = 80 和 20 − 10 = 10，其中 80/10 = 8，因此，您得到了直线的斜率，每级可获得 8 个生命值。图 10.4展示了此过程的分段线性图。这是该过程的一个相当简单的演示；如果您自己在电子表格中创建这些数字的表格，则可以通过更改每个段端点（级别）的y （命中点）值轻松地进行插值，直到获得所需的数字和斜率。
So you have a gain of 2 points per level (which is exactly the same as saying this line has a slope of 2). Then for the next segment you do the same thing. The larger y-value, y1, is the maximum desired hit point value, 100, and the lower, y0, is 20, the same as the upper value in the previous segment. The larger x value, x1, is the top level specified, 20. The smaller x value, x0, is the previous top level, 10. Using the equation above, you have 100 − 20 = 80 and 20 − 10 = 10, with 80/10 = 8, so you have the slope for the line, and a gain of hit points per level, of 8. Figure 10.4 shows the piecewise linear graph for this. This is a fairly simple demonstration of the process; if you create a table of these numbers in a spreadsheet yourself, you can easily play with the interpolation by changing the y (hit point) values at each segment endpoint (level) until you get the numbers and slope you want.
Figure 10.4 A piecewise hit point curve constructed with known endpoints and interpolating the increases
对于任何分段线性曲线，每个段都是线性的，但整体外观通常是弯曲的或近似指数的，如图10.3所示。创建这些段有时比映射到指数方程更简单（特别是如果你的数学技能有点生疏），而且以一种有趣的方式，它可以给玩家一些值得努力的目标。在图 10.4的图表中，一旦玩家知道在第 11 级有一个突破（新生命值的数量从每级 2 增加到 8），他们就会有动力达到那里并将该级别视为中期目标。
For any piecewise linear curve, each segment is linear, but the overall appearance is often curved or approximately exponential, as shown in Figure 10.3. Creating these segments is sometimes simpler than mapping to an exponential equation (especially if your math skills are a bit rusty), and in an interesting way, it can give players something to shoot for. In the graph in Figure 10.4, once players know there is a break at level 11 (where the number of new hit points jumps from 2 to 8 per level), they have an incentive to get there and treat that level as an interim goal.
近等差数列曲线
除了分段线性曲线外，在某些游戏中，进程曲线是手工制作的，以调整玩家的体验。Bateman（2006）将这些称为近算术级数（NAP）曲线，它们有点像线性（算术）曲线，但没有描述它们的基础方程。NAP 曲线尤其出现在角色扮演游戏中，其中进程和强度曲线通常是凭感觉制作的，或者是为了保留整数而非数学。例如，在魔兽世界的初始级别中，每个额外级别所需的点数以整数增加：从1级到2级需要400点。然后从2级到3级和3级到4级需要额外的500点，然后从4级到5级和5级到6级需要700点，依此类推（WoWWiki nd）这种模式并不适用于所有级别，并且显然手工制作的 NAP 会随着级别的进展而发生变化。
In addition to piecewise linear curves, in some games, progression curves are hand-crafted to tune the player’s experience. Bateman (2006) has called these near-arithmetic progression (NAP) curves, which are somewhat like linear (arithmetic) curves but without an underlying equation to describe them. NAP curves appear in role-playing games in particular, where progression and power curves are often made by feel or to preserve round numbers more than mathematics. For example, in the initial levels of World of Warcraft, the points needed for each additional level go up in round numbers: from level 1 to 2 requires 400 points. Then 500 additional from level 2 to 3 and level 3 to 4, then 700 from level 4 to 5 and level 5 to 6, and so on (WoWWiki n.d.) This pattern doesn’t hold throughout all the levels, and the apparently hand-crafted NAP changes over as the levels progress.
有些游戏使用类似这样的手工曲线，从平滑且可预测的方程驱动曲线转变为更“颠簸”的曲线，其中收益加速更快或更慢的区域各不相同，以便“让玩家感到惊喜和愉悦”（Pecorella 2015）。除了防止玩家对可预测的进展感到厌倦之外，这还允许您作为设计师协调功率曲线，使得一种类型的对象或资源在曲线的各个点上比另一种类型的对象或资源在给定成本下提供更多收益。这允许玩家通过决定如何在游戏的不同时间以最佳效果使用资源来探索功率曲线空间。
Some games use hand-crafted curves like this to move away from the smooth and predictable equation-driven curves to more “bumpy” curves with varying areas of faster or slower benefit acceleration in order to “surprise and delight” players (Pecorella 2015). In addition to preventing players from becoming bored with predictable progression, this allows you as the designer to coordinate power curves such that one type of object or resource may provide more benefit for a given cost than another at various points in the curves. This allows the player to explore the power curve space by making decisions about how to spend resources to the best effect at different times in the game.
让它为游戏而生，而不是数学
与此处讨论的其他曲线类型一样，NAP 和类似的手工曲线强调了制作进度和功率曲线的两个要点。首先，虽然这是一个数学练习，但它永远不会完美。您应该尝试让您的进度和功率曲线在数学上尽可能好地发挥作用，因为使用它们可以使您的游戏更加平衡，您节省的迭代时间就越多。其次，您将不可避免地必须回到游戏测试的定性技术，并锻炼您作为设计师的直觉来找到您想要的游戏平衡点。这可能意味着您从一条指数曲线开始，最终得到一条更手工制作的游戏进度曲线，这很好。这最终不是数学练习，而是制作有效、引人入胜、有趣的游戏的练习。
As with the other curve types discussed here, NAP and similar hand-crafted curves reinforce two important points in making progression and power curves. First, while this is a mathematical exercise, it will never be perfect. You should try to make your progression and power curves work as well you can mathematically, as the more balanced you can make your game with them, the more iteration time you will save. Second, you will inevitably have to return to the qualitative techniques of playtesting and exercising your intuition as a designer to find the balance points you want in your game. This may mean you start with an exponential curve and end up with a more hand-crafted one for your game’s progression, and that’s fine. This is ultimately not a mathematical exercise but an exercise in making an effective, engaging, fun game.
平衡零件、进程和系统
Balancing Parts, Progression, and Systems
确定了用于平衡游戏中的对象和系统的核心资源后，您就可以开始构建它们之间的成本效益关系。在创建新游戏时，这通常需要结合数学和直觉技巧，包括根据游戏需求决定使用哪种平衡曲线（例如，线性还是指数）。如果您有现有游戏中玩家行为的数据，则可以向其中添加分析信息，以减少（但不是消除）所需的迭代和游戏测试量。
Once you have identified the core resources to use to begin balancing objects and systems in your game, you can begin to build the cost–benefit relationships between them. This often involves a combination of mathematical and intuitive techniques when creating a new game, including deciding what sort of balancing curve to use (for example, linear versus exponential), based on the needs of your game. If you have data about player behavior in an existing game, you can add analytical information to it to reduce (but not eliminate) the amount of iteration and playtesting needed.
平衡零件
Balancing Parts
您必须执行的最常见平衡任务之一是确保特定系统中使用的部件相互平衡。这通常是平衡不及物件的任务：有些会比其他的好，但您要确保它们也与相对成本成比例。
One of the most common balancing tasks you will have to do is to make sure that parts used within a particular system are balanced against each other. This is typically a task of balancing intransitive objects: some are going to be better than others, but you want to make sure that they’re also proportionate to their relative costs.
平衡战斗系统中的武器就是一个很好的例子，它有助于说明这个过程。图 10.5中显示的每种武器都是角色扮演游戏战斗系统的一部分。（请注意，这是图 8.3中显示的相同数据。）每个部分都具有攻击、伤害和速度属性。这些属性的值似乎不在同一个范围内（即全部为 1-10），这使问题变得有点复杂，但这是常见的。如电子表格所示，匕首的攻击修正值最低，大剑的攻击修正值最高。伤害也是如此。就速度而言，匕首、短剑和细剑都共享最快的称号，而大剑则是迄今为止最慢的。
Balancing weapons in a combat system is a good example and will help illustrate the process. Each weapon shown in Figure 10.5 is a part in a role-playing game’s combat system. (Note that this is the same data shown in Figure 8.3.) Each part has the attributes Attack, Damage, and Speed. The values for these attributes don’t appear to be on the same scale (that is, all 1–10), which complicates matters a bit, but this is common. As shown in the spreadsheet, the dagger has the lowest Attack modifier, the great sword the highest. The same is true for Damage. For speed, the dagger, short sword, and rapier all share the fastest designation, and the great sword is by far the slowest.
Figure 10.5 An example of a spreadsheet containing attribute data for various weapons to be balanced
这些武器在能力方面是否相互平衡？它们显然不一样，但平衡并不意味着它们必须相同。要达到平衡作为系统中不可或缺的部分，它们都必须在游戏中占据一席之地。它们之间应该有足够大的差异，以便玩家可以选择使用武器。当然，它们都必须让玩家感觉它们的收益和成本相互抵消。
Are these weapons balanced with respect to each other in terms of their abilities? They’re clearly not the same, but balanced doesn’t mean they have to be the same. To be balanced as intransitive parts in a system, they each have to have a valid place in the game. Each should be sufficiently different that there is a situation in which the player might choose to use the weapon. And, of course, they all have to feel to the player as if their benefits and costs offset each other.
图 10.6是比较武器属性的图表。通过查看属性值，您可以看到存在一些差异，但许多值都聚集在一个狭窄的中间范围内，只有匕首和大剑与该组真正不同。2仅从这张图来看，还不清楚这些武器是否相互平衡，但我们似乎可能希望更改这些值以提供更多变化 - 尤其是对于弯刀、阔剑和细剑 - 从而为玩家提供更多选择。
Figure 10.6 is a graph that compares the weapon attributes. By looking at the attribute values as they are, you can see that there is some variance, but many of the values are clustered in a narrow midrange, with only the dagger and great sword really diverging from the group.2 From just looking at this graph, it’s not really clear whether these weapons are balanced against each other, but it seems likely that we may want to change these values to provide more variability—especially for the cutlass, broad sword, and rapier—and thus more choices for the player.
如前所述，为了平衡这些武器，我们需要考虑它们的成本和好处，也就是它们的能力。然而，在图 10.5中，没有显示成本。如果成本相等，为什么有人不使用最强大的武器呢？我们需要根据每种武器的优势来确定它们的成本，以便每种武器在游戏中都具有可行性。一把匕首的成本似乎应该低于一把大剑，但到底低多少呢？这与每种武器在游戏战斗系统和游戏经济系统中的效力有关。在这个例子中，我们必须将这两者都视为黑匣子，并需要注重平衡武器的成本和收益。
As discussed earlier, to balance these weapons, we need to consider both their costs and benefits—their abilities. However, in Figure 10.5, there are no costs shown. If the costs are equal, why would someone not use the most powerful weapon available? We need to determine the cost for each weapon, given its benefits, so that each feels viable in the game. It seems likely that a dagger should cost less than a great sword, but how much less? This ties in with the efficacy of each weapon in the game’s combat system and the game’s economic system. For this example, we have to consider both of those as black boxes and need to focus on balancing the costs and benefits of the weapons.
为了计算出每种武器的可行成本，我们需要参考（并可能更改）与技能相关的属性值，作为玩家的福利。这是一个反复的过程，每次执行时都会有所不同，但此示例可以提供一些指导。
To work out a viable cost for each weapon, we need to consult (and perhaps change) the attribute values related to the abilities as benefits to the player. Doing this is an iterative process that is different every time you do it, but this example can provide some guidelines.
首先要做的是找到需要平衡的核心资源，并以此为依据考虑物品的相对优势。如前所述，大多数游戏都有一个核心资源，可以推动玩家的目标和行动。理解这一点对于平衡不及物相对力量或平衡玩家在游戏中的进程至关重要。
The first thing to do is to find the core resource to balance around and consider the items’ relative benefits in that light. As described earlier, most games have a core resource that drives a player’s goals and actions. Understanding this is central to being able to balance intransitive objects in terms of their relative power or players in terms of their progression in the game.
在这个例子中，我们正在设计一款角色扮演游戏，因此我们可以使用健康值（通常用生命值表示）作为我们的核心资源。在角色扮演游戏中，如果你的角色将敌人的生命值降至零，你的角色就会获胜并获得奖励（战利品、经验值等）。另一方面，如果你的角色失去了所有生命值，他们就会死亡，这至少是你作为玩家想要避免的挫折。鉴于健康在角色扮演游戏中的核心地位，将其作为平衡武器的核心资源是有意义的。
In this example, we are designing a role-playing game, so we can use health (often expressed as hit points) as our core resource. In RPGs, if your character reduces an enemy’s health to zero, your character wins and gains rewards (loot, experience points, and so on). On the other hand, if your character loses all health, they die, which is at minimum a setback that you as the player want to avoid. Given the central place of health in a role-playing game, it makes sense to have it be the core resource around which to balance weapons.
这给了我们一个起点：哪种武器属性与降低对手的生命值最密切相关？降低的生命值量取决于武器的伤害属性，所以我们可以从这里开始。但是，要用武器造成伤害，玩家首先必须用武器击中对手，这由攻击属性决定——这个数字越高，击中的机会就越大。但这并不是故事的结束。在这个战斗系统中，武器速度起着重要作用：速度较慢的武器不像速度快的武器那样频繁地攻击。一旦玩家有机会使用他们的武器（基于其速度），他们就可以尝试使用其攻击调整器击中对手。如果他们击中，他们可能会造成伤害，这就是目标。因此，就使玩家能够降低对手生命值的属性而言，速度是第一道门，然后是攻击，然后是伤害。
This gives us a starting place: which of the weapon attributes is most closely connected to reducing an opponent’s health? The amount of health reduction done is based on the weapon’s Damage attribute, so we can start there. However, to do damage with a weapon, a player first has to hit their opponent with it, which is governed by the Attack attribute—and the higher this number, the better the chance of hitting. But that’s not the end of the story. In this combat system, weapon speed plays a role: slower weapons do not attack as often as fast ones. Once the player has a chance to bring their weapon to bear (based on its Speed), they can try to hit their opponent, using its Attack modifier. If they hit, they may do damage, which is the goal. So in terms of attributes that enable the player to reduce their opponent’s health, Speed is the first gate, then Attack, then Damage.
有了这些知识（或者至少是假设……可能需要多次尝试才能正确），我们可以开始组合每种武器的属性值，看看是否能为每种武器找到可行的、平衡的成本。如果只是将这些值相加就能得到看似可用的成本值，那就简单了。然而，将每种武器的攻击力、伤害力和速度相加后，我们发现短剑和弯刀的成本都是 10，只比匕首多 3，比阔剑少 1。不知何故，这似乎不对。
With this knowledge (or at least a hypothesis…it may take several tries to get this right), we can start to combine the attribute values for each weapon to see if that leads us to a viable, balanced cost for each one. It would be simple if just adding these up gave us what look like usable cost values. However, adding up the Attack, Damage, and Speed for each shows us that the short sword and cutlass both end up with a cost of 10, only 3 more than the dagger and 1 less than the broad sword. Somehow that doesn’t seem right.
调整属性权重
我们现在可以做几件事。一是为每个属性分配权重系数，让它们的值在总成本中具有不同的权重。我们还将仔细研究武器属性值，看看它们是否合理或是否应该移动。通过迭代这些值（因为它们相互影响），我们应该能够为每种武器得出一组平衡且多样的值。
There are a couple things we can do from here. One is to assign weight coefficients to each of the attributes to give their values different weights in the overall cost. We will also want to look hard at the weapon attribute values to see if they make sense or should be moved around. By iterating on these (because they affect each other), we should be able to come up with a balanced and varied set of values for each weapon.
要设置每个属性的乘数，我们需要了解这些属性在战斗系统中如何协同工作。由于伤害是与我们的核心资源最直接相关的属性，我们可以先将其系数设置为 1.0。我们可以将其他属性（攻击和速度）的系数也设置为 1.0，将每个属性设置为同等重要，但如上所述，这并不能给我们令人满意的成本值。此外，我们知道，如果一种武器比另一种武器更快，它就有更多机会击中并造成实际伤害，因此我们可能希望提高速度属性对武器整体价值的贡献。让我们从系数 2 开始。攻击属性也很重要，尽管在这样的系统中很难确切地说出它有多重要。让我们从值 1.5 开始，介于伤害的基本值和权重更大的速度值之间。
To set the multipliers on each attribute, we need to look at how the attributes work together in the combat systems. Because Damage is the attribute most directly related to our core resource, we can start by setting its coefficient to 1.0. We could leave the other attributes, Attack and Speed, also at a coefficient of 1.0, setting each of the attributes to be of equal importance, but as noted above, that doesn’t give us satisfactory cost values. In addition, we know that if one weapon is faster than another, it has more chances to hit and actually do damage, so we probably want to bump up the Speed attribute’s contribution to the overall value of the weapon. Let’s start with a coefficient of 2. The attack attribute is also important, though in a system like this it’s difficult to say exactly how important. Let’s start with a value of 1.5, between the base value of Damage and the more heavily weighted Speed value.
通过在电子表格中使用这些数据值，很容易摆弄乘数并查看它们如何影响每种武器的成本。 （建议您将图 10.5中显示的值加载到电子表格中并按照此方式操作，以便更好地理解过程。）速度乘以 2、攻击乘以 1.5、伤害乘以 1.0，我们可以将每个乘数相乘并将它们相加以获得每种武器的总和暂定成本。这些成本值开始看起来更合理一些。范围是匕首的 10 到大剑的 20。这可能有点窄（大剑的价格仅为最便宜的武器匕首的 2 倍），但还不错。但是，现在弯刀的价格甚至低于短剑，这似乎很奇怪。查看每个值的数值，弯刀是一种速度慢得多的武器，而且要重得多，因此由于速度慢而失去了“价值”。看起来是时候从乘数转向使用武器属性值本身了。
By working with these data values in a spreadsheet, it’s easy to fiddle around with the multipliers and see how they affect each weapon’s cost. (You are encouraged to load the values shown in Figure 10.5 into a spreadsheet and follow along that way so you understand the process better.) With multipliers of 2x on Speed, 1.5x on Attack, and 1.0 on Damage, we can multiple each and add them up to get each weapon’s total and tentative cost. These cost values start to look a little more reasonable. The range is 10 for the dagger to 20 for the great sword. This is maybe a little narrow (the great sword is only 2x as expensive as the least expensive weapon, the dagger) but not bad. However, now the cutlass costs even less than the short sword, which seems odd. Looking at the values for each, the cutlass is a much slower weapon, being a lot heavier, so it’s losing out on “value” due its low Speed. It looks like it’s time to move from the multipliers to playing with the weapon attribute values themselves.
虽然有些情况下您无法更改游戏中部件（如这些武器）的属性值，但通常您可以这样做。如果不行，您只能操纵成本乘数，或者在某些情况下添加情境平衡因素：如果一件物品的价格低于其应有的价格，您可能能够使其难以购买（例如，玩家必须进入危险区域或绕远路才能这样做）。此类情境修饰符可以弥补无法直接平衡对象之间的缺陷，但请注意，添加此类间接修饰符会使整体平衡任务变得更加困难。例如，如果玩家买不起任何其他武器，也找不到购买他们想要的武器的地方，或者如果去那里意味着必死无疑，该怎么办？在这种情况下，您已将玩家锁定在游戏之外。
While there will be cases where you cannot change the attribute values for parts (like these weapons) in a game, usually you will be able to do so. If not, you are stuck with manipulating the cost multipliers or, in some cases, adding situational balancing factors: if one item is less expensive than it should be, you might be able to make it difficult to purchase (for example, the player has to go into a dangerous area or significantly out of their way to do so). Such situational modifiers can make up for the inability to balance objects against each other directly but be aware that adding such indirect modifiers can make the overall balancing task much more difficult. For example, what if a player can’t afford any other weapon and can’t find where to purchase the one they want, or what if going there means certain death? In such a case, you’ve locked the player out of the game.
调整属性值
要开始考虑武器的整体属性，选择一个对象作为基础或中线会很有帮助，就像我们在上一节中为伤害赋予 1.0 修正值时所做的那样。在这种情况下，大剑看起来是个不错的选择：我们将调整其所有属性为 5，以便它处于每个属性范围的中间。这会稍微增加一点，但这样做将有助于疏通中间，大多数武器现在都聚集在那里。其他一些调整似乎可能是好主意 - 让匕首的攻击力稍微好一点（从 0 增加到 1），并将大剑的攻击力和伤害力从 8 增加到 10。这有助于扩大范围并尝试各种方法。
To start considering the weapon attributes as a whole, it can be helpful to choose one object as the base or midline, as we did in giving Damage a 1.0 modifier in the preceding section. In this case, the broad sword looks like a good candidate: we’ll adjust its attributes to all be 5 so that it’s in the middle of the range for each attribute. That’s bumping it up a little bit, but doing so will help unclog the middle, where most of the weapons are congregating right now. A few other tweaks seem like they’re probably good ideas—giving the dagger a little bit better Attack (going from 0 to 1), and moving the great sword from 8 Attack and 8 Damage to 10 in each. This helps open the range and try things out.
此时，最好密切关注武器属性的相互关系图，以确保它们不会聚集在一起，并且不会发生任何奇怪的事情（例如，弯刀变得比细剑更快）。 继续调整属性权重并观察这些组合和属性变化如何相互影响也是一个好主意。
At about this time, it’s a good idea to keep an eye on the graph of the weapons’ attributes relative to each other to make sure they aren’t clumping together and that nothing weird happens (like the cutlass becoming faster than the rapier, for example). It’s also a good idea to keep tuning the attribute weights and watching how the combinations of these and the attribute changes affect each other.
将成本与价值脱钩
最后，当这些值看起来不那么奇怪时，我们可以尝试将我们一直使用的成本数字与实际的游戏成本分离。将旧的成本值称为 Mod 值，作为我们从乘数修改器中获得的效用值。然后，我们可以手动独立地上下移动游戏成本以获得我们想要的效果。将成本和 Mod 值再次绘制在一起有助于直观地显示武器之间的关系。图 10.7中的图表并没有直接显示各个武器属性之间的平衡，但它确实显示了在 Mod 值中加权和相加后它们之间的关系。还请注意图 10.7中使用的逻辑曲线（调整为陡度值为 0.95 和中点为 3.5）。这可以作为指导并确认武器遵循我们想要的关系。
Finally, when the values start looking not too strange, we can experiment with decoupling the number we have been using for cost and the actual in-game cost. Call the old cost value Mod Value for the utility value we get from the multiplier modifiers. Then we can move the in-game cost up or down independently by hand to get the effect we want. Graphing cost and Mod Value together again helps visually show the relationships between the weapons. The graph in Figure 10.7 doesn’t directly show the individual weapon attributes balanced against each other, but it does show how they relate to each other after having been weighed and added together in the Mod Value. Note the logistic curve used in Figure 10.7 as well (tweaked to have a steepness value of 0.95 and a midpoint of 3.5). This acts as a guide and a confirmation that the weapons follow the kind of relationship we want.
图 10.7加权属性值（Mod 值）与手动选择的成本数字的图表，以及作为指导的逻辑曲线
Figure 10.7 The weighted attribute value (Mod Value) graphed against hand-chosen cost figures, along with a logistic curve as a guide
在这种情况下，在对武器的属性及其乘法系数进行多次迭代修改后，我们最终得到了图 10.8中电子表格摘录中所示的属性值。Mod 值是每种武器的攻击、伤害和速度值的加权和。Mod 值的属性值和权重系数现在都已更改：在此电子表格中，伤害保留乘数 1.0，而速度的乘数为 1.75，攻击的乘数为 1.3。这些乘数的精确值并不重要，重要的是它们是否对游戏和武器的行为有意义，以及它们是否导致武器的收益和成本都达到平衡。
In this case, after numerous iterative modifications of both the weapons’ attributes and their multiplicative coefficients, we end up with the attribute values shown in the spreadsheet excerpt in Figure 10.8. Mod Value is the weighted sum of each weapon’s Attack, Damage, and Speed values. Both the attribute values and the weight coefficients for Mod Value have now changed: in this spreadsheet, Damage retains a multiplier of 1.0, while Speed has a multiplier of 1.75, and Attack has a multiplier of 1.3. The precise values of these multipliers is not as important as whether they make sense for the game and the behavior of the weapons and whether they lead to both weapon benefits and costs that area balanced.
图 10.8修改后的武器属性值，包括代表攻击力（加权 1.3）、伤害（加权 1.0）和速度（加权 1.75）加权和的 Mod 值，以及基于 Mod 值手动选择的成本值
Figure 10.8 The revised weapon attribute values, including the Mod Value representing the weighted sum of Attack (1.3 weighted), Damage (1.0 weighted), and Speed (1.75 weighted) and the hand-selected cost values based on the Mod Value
我们还可以以图形形式查看这些修改后的属性值，以更定性地了解它们之间的差异，如图10.9所示。考虑到所代表的武器种类，所有属性看起来都很合理，并且属性范围足够广泛，可以应用于许多不同的情况。没有一种武器太过相似，因为每种武器都有不同的优点和缺点。图 10.7所示的成本效益曲线向右上升，最接近所使用的逻辑。成本和收益值遵循这条曲线意味着它们的关系是成比例的，玩家在玩游戏时将能够直观地掌握这一点。
We can also view these revised attribute values in graphical form to see more qualitatively how they differ from each other, as shown in Figure 10.9. The attributes all look reasonable, given the kinds of weapons being represented, and the attribute range is broad enough to apply to a lot of different situations. None of the weapons are too much alike, as each has different strengths and weaknesses. The cost–benefit curve shown in Figure 10.7 rises up and to the right, following most closely the logistic used. That the cost and benefit values follow this curve implies that their relationships are proportional, and players will be able to intuitively pick this up as they play.
图 10.9修改后的武器属性值以线图形式呈现。请注意，虽然攻击值在各个武器中都有所增加，但每种武器都有自己的优点和缺点，中间相似值的堵塞已被打破
Figure 10.9 The revised weapon attribute values in line graph form. Note that while Attack values increase across weapons, each weapon has its own strengths and weaknesses, and the clog of similar values in the middle has been broken up
图 10.7中的成本效益图还显示，通过在对属性权重进行一些数学建模后手动调整每种武器的成本，我们可以使效率较低的武器稍微对玩家有利：它们的成本低于其价值所严格表明的水平。这是合理的，因为它们的性能较差，更有可能是新手或较贫穷的角色使用的武器。更强大的高端武器则相反：它们附带一个小的溢价，这意味着它们的成本图略高于其固有的 Mod 值。这让它们有点令人向往；如果你看到某人拿着一把大剑，你就知道这是一把强大的武器，而且这个角色为得到它付出了巨大的代价。此外，成本和收益线正好在阔剑处相交，使它稳稳地处于中间，成为这些武器心理模型中的一种固定点。
The cost–benefit graph in Figure 10.7 also shows that by hand-tuning the cost for each weapon after doing some mathematical modeling of the attribute weights, we can make the less effective weapons balanced slightly more in the player’s favor: they cost less than their value might strictly indicate. This fits because they are less capable and are more likely to be the weapons new or poorer characters use. The more powerful high-end weapons show the opposite: they have a small premium attached, meaning that the graph of their cost slightly exceeds their inherent Mod Value. This keeps them somewhat aspirational; if you see someone with a great sword, you know it’s a powerful weapon and that the character paid a significant price to get it. In addition, the cost and benefit lines cross right at the broad sword, keeping it solidly in the middle, as a kind of fixed point in the mental model for these weapons.
到目前为止，这一切看起来都很好——但当然，所有这些都没有经过测试。到目前为止，我们结合使用了数学和设计师启发式方法来平衡这些武器作为战斗系统的一部分。下一步是在游戏测试中与玩家一起使用这些方法，看看哪些假设被证明是错误的，或者玩家是否能够快速而愉快地建立武器相对效力和成本的心理模型。在任何真实的游戏情况下，几乎肯定需要更多的迭代才能真正从数学上以及从设计师和玩家的角度来看平衡这些项目。
So far, this all looks good—but of course none of this has been playtested. We have thus far used a combination of mathematical and designer heuristic methods to balance these weapons as parts within the combat system. The next step is to use these with players in playtest situations to see which assumptions prove incorrect or whether the players can quickly and enjoyably build a mental model of the weapons’ relative effectiveness and cost. In any real game situation, more iteration would almost certainly be called for to truly balance these items mathematically and from the designer’s and players’ points of view.
平衡发展
Balancing for Progression
除了平衡系统内的原子部分之外，作为游戏设计师，您通常还需要平衡玩家或其他对象在游戏过程中的进步方式。游戏中通常会发现多种类型的进程。其中最重要的是玩家在游戏中的代表（他们的角色、军队、农场或类似物）在游戏过程中属性值的提高方式。此外，经济发展的几个方面需要仔细平衡，包括货币水平以及玩家在游戏过程中使用的游戏内对象的可用性和改进。
Beyond balancing atomic parts within a system, as a game designer, you will often have to balance how the player or other objects improve during the game. Multiple kinds of progression are commonly found in games. First and foremost of these is how the player’s representative in the game—their character, army, farm, or similar—improves in terms of attribute values during the course of the game. In addition, several aspects of economic progression need to be carefully balanced, including levels of currency and the availability and improvement in in-game objects that the player uses during the game.
在大多数游戏中，玩家（或至少是他们在游戏中的代表）会随着游戏的进行而进步。这让玩家在游戏中获得了成就感和意义。要为玩家创建和平衡进度系统，您需要首先确定作为玩家进步主要载体的属性。这些通常是前面讨论过的核心属性。这些属性将引导您找到代表进步成本的资源。
In most games, the player (or at least their in-game representative) improves as the game is played. This gives the player a sense of achievement and meaning in the game. To create and balance a progression system for the player, you need to first decide on the attributes that are the primary carriers for their improvement. These are most often the core attributes discussed earlier. These attributes will lead you to the resources that represent the cost for advancing.
玩家进步最常见的例子之一是玩家角色通过升级而进步。角色积累经验值，然后花费这些经验值来获得额外的生命值、增强的力量，并且经常获得新内容或能力。这些好处都是必须包含在任何进步曲线和平衡中的属性（访问内容是另一个可能难以量化的特殊属性的例子）。这种交换通常是自动的，只要角色有足够的经验值来跨越升级门槛就会发生。玩家通常不认为这是“花费”这些点数，但从功能上讲，这是“花费”。与其将经验值余额重置为零，不如然而，大多数游戏都会将下一个级别的增量设定得高于当前总数；这样就可以使用指数曲线来描述每个级别所需的点数，并使玩家在看到这些数字不断上升时产生成就感。
One of the most common examples of player progression is a player character improving by going up levels. The character accrues experience points and then spends them to gain additional health, improved powers, and often access to new content or abilities. Each of these benefits is an attribute that must be included in any progression curves and balancing (access to content being another example of a special-case attribute that may be difficult to quantify). This exchange is typically automatic, happening as soon as the character has sufficient experience points to cross the leveling threshold. Players don’t typically think of this as “spending” these points, but functionally they are. Rather than reset the experience points balance to zero, however, most games make the next level increment higher than the current total; this allows for the use of exponential curves that describe the points needed for each level and provides the player with a sense of achievement at seeing these numbers always go up.
虽然你应该至少拥有一种控制玩家进程的核心资源，但你也可以使用多种资源。使用多种资源会增加你评估难度和玩家前进所需时间的工作量，因为你必须针对每种资源分别进行评估。然而，如果不同的资源根据玩家所处的进程提供不同的前进速度，那么他们就有机会在游戏中战略性地选择自己的道路，并为他们做出更多有意义的决定。
While you should have at least one core resource that governs the player’s progression, it’s possible to use more than one. Using more than one can increase the amount of work you have to do to assess the difficulty and the time it will take for the player to advance, as this has to be done for each resource separately. If, however, different resources offer different advancement rates, depending on where the player is in their progression, this gives them the opportunity to choose their path in the game strategically and creates many more meaningful decisions for them.
例如，你可能有一款游戏，玩家的早期进步基于战斗和获得健康。玩家可以在整个游戏中继续这条道路，但他们也可能有机会切换到基于财富的进步，然后再次基于他们拥有的朋友数量，因为首先健康和财富带来的额外好处较少（即增长率减慢或距离下一个级别的距离呈指数增加，而获得的积分却没有）。并非所有玩家都会欢迎这种多方面的方法，因此，一旦玩家开始使用特定资源（和随之而来的活动）前进，他们就可以继续这样做，这一点很重要。然而，许多玩家都希望采取最优化的进步路线，因此让他们选择专注于游戏的一部分的新资源、属性和活动可能会增加他们的参与度。
For example, you might have a game where the player’s early progression is based on fighting and gaining health. The player can continue this path throughout the game, but they may also have the opportunity to switch to advancing based on their wealth and then again later based on the number of friends they have, as first health and then wealth deliver fewer additional benefits (that is, the rate of increase slows or the distance to the next level increases exponentially while points gained do not). Not all players will welcome such a multifaceted approach, so it’s important that once a player begins advancing using a particular resource (and attendant activities) that they can continue doing so. Many players will want to take the most optimal course to advancement, however, so giving them the option to focus on a new resource, attribute, and activity for part of the game may increase their engagement.
无论如何，让玩家始终感觉自己在进步很重要。如果玩家感觉自己的进步已经停止——或者考虑到他们当前挑战等级的奖励，下一次进步的机会实际上无限遥远——那么他们对游戏的参与度就会消失。（如第 7 章所述，许多放置类游戏中的“声望”外循环在主要方法开始变慢并变得无聊时提供了另一种进步方式。）无论玩家有一个或多个可以前进的资源维度，他们都必须始终看到至少在其中一种资源维度上前进的重要方法。
In any event, it is important that a player always have the feeling that they are advancing. If a player ever feels that their progress has stopped—or that the next opportunity for advancement is effectively infinitely far away, given the rewards for their current level of challenge—then their engagement with the game will evaporate. (As noted in Chapter 7, the “prestige” outer loop in many idle games presents an additional way to advance once the primary method has begun to slow and become boring.) Whether the player has one or multiple resource dimensions along which they could be advancing, they must always see significant ways to progress along at least one of them.
节奏
在大多数情况下，进度是间断的，而不是连续的。这意味着任何改进都是以离散间隔出现的，而不是随着玩家积累更多积分而缓慢地消失。在设定的检查点获得进度的好处通常会让玩家更有回报（并让他们有所期待），而且它也更容易平衡，因为你可以选择将升级点放在何处。然而，没有理由你不能创建一个连续的改进曲线，尽管保持平衡可能很困难。
In most cases, progression is punctuated rather than being continuous. This means that any improvements appear at discrete intervals rather than dribbling out slowly as the player builds up more points. Getting the benefits of progression at set checkpoints is often more rewarding for players (and gives them something to look forward to), and it’s also easier to balance because you can choose where to place the level-up points. However, there is no reason you could not create a continuous improvement curve, though it would likely be difficult to keep balanced.
为了平衡进程系统，你需要决定玩家前进的速度。这个速度可以用杀死的怪物数量、占领的省份数量、采集的鲜花数量……任何对您的游戏和您构建进展路径的资源最有意义的东西。
To balance a progression system, you need to decide on the pace at which you want the player to advance. This pace can be defined in terms of number of monsters killed, number of provinces won, number of flowers gathered …whatever makes the most sense for your game and the resources around which you’re building the progression path.
确定玩家进步速度的一部分是定义曲线的形状，该曲线定义了进步的成本和收益之间的关系。例如，如果你想奖励越来越多的积分，但又想让玩家在每一步中花更长的时间进步，指数曲线可能是你的最佳选择。如前所述，还有许多其他选择，并且有无数的混合方案：你可以在游戏开始时创建一个手工设计的分段线性曲线来吸引玩家，然后过渡到一系列堆叠的逻辑曲线，每个曲线都依赖于不同的成本资源，这些曲线一起近似于指数曲线。这没有单一的公式，你需要花费一些迭代设计时间来寻找最适合玩家在游戏中玩游戏和进步的方法。
Part of determining the pace of player advancement is defining the shape of the curve that defines the relationship between the costs and benefits for advancement. If, for example, you want to award more and more points and yet have the players take longer to advance at each subsequent step, an exponential curve is likely your best choice. Many other choices are possible, too, as discussed earlier, and there are endless hybrids: you could create a hand-crafted piecewise linear curve for the start of your game to draw the player in and then transition to a series of stacked logistic curves, each relying on a different cost resource, that together approximate an exponential curve. There is no single formula for this, and you will need to spend some iterative design time finding what works best to the players engaged as they play and advance in your game.
时间和注意力
除了玩家用于进步的其他资源之外，每个玩家在游戏上花费的最终资源是他们的注意力和时间。这两者几乎相同，但又不完全相同。如果玩家将注意力花在你的游戏上，那么他们就会积极参与并玩游戏——探索、建造、狩猎等等。在平衡他们的进步时，一个主要考虑因素是他们必须进行多少次这些活动才能获得下一阶段的改进。在许多情况下，你可以（也应该）高度具体地规划出玩家正在做的活动、他们做这些事情获得的积分或其他奖励数量，以及他们需要做多少次才能获得进步所需的积分数量。在最简单的情况下，这些活动提供了已知数量的积分：例如，你可以说，玩家每喂养一只动物园动物，他们就会得到 10 分。玩家需要 100 分才能进入下一关，所以他们需要喂养 10 只动物。如果喂养一只动物需要 2 分钟，那么玩家就需要全神贯注 20 分钟才能晋级到下一关。
Underlying whatever other resources the player uses for progression, the ultimate resources that every player spends on your game are their attention and their time. These are almost but not quite the same. If a player is spending their attention on your game, then they are engaged and playing it actively—exploring, building, hunting, and so on. When balancing their progression, a major consideration is the number of these activities that they have to do to get the next installment of improvements. In many cases, you can (and should) map out to a high degree of specificity the activities the player is doing, the number of points or other rewards they get for doing these things, and how many times they need to do that to accrue the number of points needed to advance. In the simplest case, the activities provide a known number of points: so you can say, for example, that for every zoo animal a player feeds, they get 10 points. The player needs 100 points to get to the next level, so they need to feed 10 animals. If feeding an animal takes 2 minutes, it will take a player 20 minutes of full attention to advance to the next level.
在大多数游戏中，每个活动授予的积分数量并不是预先设定的，或者是在一定范围内随机的，而且你可能还必须考虑失败的可能性。因此，如果在一款关于宝石商人的游戏中，玩家需要 1,000 分才能进入下一关，并且每成功切割一颗宝石可获得 50 到 200 分，那么他们需要切割 5 到 20 颗宝石。但是，玩家可能并不总是成功。考虑到任务对他们经验水平的难度，你可以估算他们的成功率。如果估计玩家当前级别的宝石切割成功率为 80%，那么玩家将需要切割大约 7 到 25 颗宝石，包括失败。如果切割每颗宝石需要 1 到 3 分钟，那么这意味着玩家至少需要 7 到 75 分钟才能进入下一关——如果你不想假设他们一直在不停地工作，那么可能还需要更多时间。这是一个非常广泛的时间范围，因此您可能需要重新考虑该系统的某些方面，以保持玩家的平衡，让他们感觉自己一直在进步。也许他们切割宝石的时间越长（最高可达某个最大值），失败的几率就越低。或者他们可以通过切割宝石获得奖励积分。有很多类似的方法可以控制时间范围——但您必须知道进步的时间范围是多少，以及它是否从玩家的角度来看这将是一个问题（或者这不是您想要创建的体验）。
In most games, the number of points awarded per activity isn’t preset, or it’s random within a range, and you may also have to account for the possibility of failure. So if in a game about being a gem merchant the player needs 1,000 points to get to the next level, and they get 50 to 200 points for every gem they successfully cut, then they need to cut 5 to 20 gems. However, the player may not always be successful. Given the difficulty of the task for their level of experience, you can estimate their success rate. If the gem-cutting success rate is estimated at 80% for the player’s current level, then the player will need to cut about 7 to 25 gems, including failures. If each gem takes 1 to 3 minutes to cut, then that means at minimum, a player will need 7 to 75 minutes to get to the next level—and possibly more if you don’t want to assume that they are working without pause the entire time. That’s a very wide time range, so you may need to reconsider some of the aspects of this system to keep it balanced from the player’s point of view, so that they feel like they are always making progress. Perhaps the longer they take to cut a gem (up to some maximum), the lower the chance of failure. Or maybe they can gain bonus points for cutting a gem really well. There are numerous ways like this to keep the time range reined in—but you have to know what the range of time to advancement is and whether it’s going to be a problem from the player’s point of view (or if it’s just not the experience you are trying to create).
与玩家注意力密切相关的是他们的时间。这两者通常是同义词，但并非总是如此。如果玩家可以开始一个过程（种植庄稼、组建军队等等），然后在过程中离开去做其他事情，那么游戏会限制他们前进的速度，但在他们前进的过程中不需要他们的注意力。时间是我们所有人拥有的终极资源，作为设计师，我们必须尊重玩家的时间。如果你在玩家进程系统中加入一个组件，通过时钟时间来调节他们的进程，你就可以更好地控制游戏体验，因为你可以确信他们在游戏中的进展速度。另一方面，这可能会导致玩家参与度降低，因为他们可能觉得他们所要做的就是开始种植下一批庄稼或烤馅饼，然后他们就可以离开了。这让他们在游戏中无事可做，大大增加了他们参与度不够而无法回来的可能性。
Closely linked to the player’s attention is their time. These are often synonymous, but not always. If the player can start a process—growing crops, raising an army, and so on—and then go away and do something else while it’s going on, then the game limits how rapidly they can advance but does not require their attention while they are getting there. Time is the ultimate resource any of us have, and as designers, we must be respectful of the player’s time. If you include a component in the player progression system that regulates their advancement simply by clock time, you maintain greater control over the gameplay experience because you can say with assurance how rapidly they can progress in the game. On the other hand, this can lead to reduced engagement on the player’s part because they may feel that all they have to do is start the next batch of crops growing or pies baking, and then they can leave. That gives them little to do in the game and greatly increases the probability that they will simply not be engaged enough to come back.
二次进展
除了玩家通过核心资源进行游戏进程之外，在复杂度较高的游戏中，作为设计师的你很可能有机会创建次要进程路径。这些路径可能更短期，有助于保持玩家的参与度，尤其是当他们的主要进程检查点相距较远时。
In addition to the player’s progression via their core resources, it is likely in a game of significant complexity that you as the designer will have opportunities to create secondary progression paths. These can be more short term and help keep the player engaged, especially if their primary progression checkpoints are far apart.
这种二次升级的例子可以参见《魔兽世界》如何通过玩家角色的物品栏提供二次升级。在早期，角色携带的物品数量受到严重限制。玩家通常必须做出艰难的决定，决定要保留或丢弃哪些战利品，因为他们根本无法携带所有物品。
An example of this kind of secondary advancement can be found in how World of Warcraft provides secondary advancement with the player character’s inventory. Early on, characters are severely limited in how much they can carry with them. Players commonly have to make difficult decisions about which loot to keep or drop because they simply cannot carry everything.
然而，随着角色等级和财富的提升，新的库存选项也随之出现：他们可以（随着财富的增长）购买新的、更大的背包和包，从而增加携带物品的数量。一些在制作方面也有所进步的角色获得了制作这些包的能力，这又开辟了另一条次要的发展路径。结果是，随着角色的不断进步，他们的库存上限也会上升。这并不是以固定的方式联系在一起的（例如玩家在 10 级时获得两个以上的库存槽），而是作为涉及角色等级、财富和/或次要技能的额外次要发展路径。虽然这些发展路径也需要与玩家的整体进步保持平衡，但保持这些分离可以使这些发展系统更容易实现自我平衡，因为当它成为角色的问题时，玩家会关注他们对增加库存的需求。
However, as a character advances both in levels and in wealth, new inventory options open up to them: they can purchase (with their growing wealth) new, larger backpacks and bags that increase the amount they can carry. Some characters who also advance in crafting gain the ability to create these bags, which opens up yet another secondary progression path. The result is that as the character continues to advance, the limit on their inventory also rises. This isn’t connected in a rigid way (such as the player gaining two more inventory slots at level 10) but rather as additional, secondary progression paths involving the character’s level, wealth, and/or secondary skills. While these progression paths also need to remain balanced with the player’s overall advancement, keeping these decoupled makes it easier for these progression systems to be largely self-balancing, as the player will attend to their need for increased inventory as it becomes an issue for their character.
经济体系平衡
Economic System Balance
游戏整体平衡的另一个重要方面是系统平衡。平衡经济系统就是一个重要的例子。如第 7 章所述，游戏内经济在一系列交易中创造了各种资源之间的复杂关系。强化循环以创造更大的价值。资源从资源中出现，作为经济的一部分进行交换，并通过汇出。这些资源（通常是由它们制成的游戏内物品）可以成为玩家的次要进步路径，因为财富和物品的拥有是成就和地位的常见标志。虽然平衡游戏内经济和类似的复杂系统充其量仍然是一门不精确的艺术（需要第 9 章“游戏平衡方法”中概述的所有类型的方法），但有一些方法可以防止游戏中的系统失控。
Another major aspect of overall game balancing is systemic balance. Balancing economic systems is an important example of this. As introduced in Chapter 7, in-game economies create complex relationships between various resources as they are exchanged in a set of reinforcing loops to create greater value. Resources appear in the game from sources, are exchanged as part of the economy, and leave through sinks. These resources (and often the in-game objects that are made from them) can become a secondary progression path for the player, as wealth and possession of objects are common markers of both achievement and status. While balancing in-game economies and similar complex systems remains an inexact art at best (requiring all the types of methods outlined in Chapter 9, “Game Balance Methods”), there are some ways you can keep systems in your game from spiraling out of control.
通货膨胀、停滞和套利
如第 7 章所述，游戏内经济经常面临一些最棘手的平衡问题，尤其是通货膨胀。当有太多来源向经济注入货币（或其他资源），而资源流出的方式又不够时，越来越多的资源就会在经济中堆积，对玩家来说价值越来越低。几乎每个有游戏内经济的游戏都会发生这种情况——至少部分原因是我们还没有发现所有可以实施的系统经济原则，以防止猖獗的通货膨胀。
As discussed in Chapter 7, in-game economies often have some of the most difficult struggles with balance issues, particularly inflation. When there are too many sources pouring currency (or other resources) into an economy and not enough ways for the resources to leave it, more and more of these resources piles up within the economy, making it worth less and less to the player. This happens to virtually every game that has an in-game economy—at least in part because we simply have not yet discovered all the systemic economic principles to put into place to prevent rampant inflation from taking over.
停滞是另一个问题，尽管不太常见。停滞意味着没有足够的货币通过资源进入游戏，无法提供足够的经济速度——资源从一个地方流向另一个地方的速度，非常像河流中的水流速度。如果水流减慢，“河流”就会停滞，经济就会消亡。这种情况通常发生在游戏中，当设计师过于努力地防止通货膨胀时，他们就会走得太远，让游戏中的资源变得过于珍贵，最终导致大多数玩家感到沮丧。
Stagnation is another issue, albeit a less common one. With stagnation, there is not enough currency coming into the game via the sources to provide enough economic velocity—the rapidity with which resources flow from one location to another, very much like the rate at which water flows in a river. If the flow slows down, the “river” stagnates, and the economy dies. This typically happens in games when a designer is trying so hard to prevent inflation that they go too far the other way, making resources in the game overly precious, which eventually leads to frustration for most players.
游戏平衡的第三个问题是套利管理。简单来说，套利就是在某个地方以给定价格购买资源，然后（通常很快）在其他地方以更高的价格出售的能力。这是当今现实世界中极为常见的经济活动，从货币市场到长途贸易路线，无所不包。
A third issue with game balance is managing arbitrage. Simply put, arbitrage is the ability to buy a resource in one place for a given price and then (usually quickly) sell it for a higher price somewhere else. This is an extremely common real-world economic activity today, underlying everything from money markets to long-distance trade routes.
从娃娃和水晶球中学到的教训
在游戏中，如果不谨慎管理套利，就会出现大规模通货膨胀。已知的第一个网络游戏套利案例可能发生在Habitat中，这是一个在线虚拟世界，于 1987 年推出，远在大多数人知道互联网之前（Morningstar 和 Farmer 1990）。这个案例，就像Habitat的许多教训一样，仍然为今天的游戏和网络世界设计师提供有用的信息。在这个案例中， Habitat的运营者 Chip Morningstar 和 Randy Farmer一天早上惊恐地发现游戏中的货币供应量一夜之间增加了五倍。游戏中这种货币泛滥是一种可能迅速毁掉经济的漏洞。但奇怪的是，他们没有发现任何漏洞，也没有玩家提交报告。他们花了一段时间才重建当时发生的事情。
In games, if arbitrage is not managed carefully, massive inflation can occur. Probably the first known instance of arbitrage in an online game happened in Habitat, an online virtual world that launched in 1987, well before most people even knew about the Internet (Morningstar and Farmer 1990). This instance, like many of the lessons from Habitat, still provides useful information for game and online world designers today. In this case, Chip Morningstar and Randy Farmer, the guys running Habitat, were alarmed one morning to see that the supply of money in the game had quintupled overnight. This type of flood of money in a game is the kind of bug that can ruin an economy quickly. Strangely, though, there was no bug that they could find, and no players submitted reports. It took them a little while to reconstruct what had happened.
在Habitat中，每个玩家在游戏开始时都有 2,000 个代币。与大多数其他游戏货币一样，这些代币并非来自任何地方；游戏只是将它们作为来源创建并提供给每个新玩家角色。此外，整个游戏世界中都有称为 Vendroids 的自动售货机，玩家可以从中购买各种物品（这些机器充当货币吸收器，从游戏中移除金钱）。还有类似的机器称为 Pawn Machines，可以从玩家那里回购物品。每个 Vendroid 都有自己的价格，因此它们之间存在一些差异，以使经济对玩家更有趣。事实证明，有两个 Vendroid 彼此相隔很远（在游戏中要走很长一段路），它们的一些物品价格特别低。其中一个娃娃的售价设置为 75 个代币。这不会成为问题，除非玩家找到一个 Pawn Machine，它可以以 100 个代币的价格将它们买回来。这是一个即时套利机会，因为玩家每买一个娃娃然后卖掉它，就能赚到 25 个代币，每次都要带着娃娃穿过城镇。这正是一些玩家所做的，他们拿出所有的钱，买下尽可能多的娃娃，然后穿过城镇，卖掉每一个娃娃，赚取利润。
In Habitat, each player began the game with 2,000 tokens. Like most other in-game currencies, these tokens didn’t come from anywhere; the game just created them as a source and gave them to each new player character. In addition, throughout the game world were vending machines called Vendroids, out of which the players could buy various items (the machines, acting as currency sinks, removed the money from the game). There were similar machines called Pawn Machines that would buy objects back from the players. Each Vendroid had its own prices, so there was some variability across them in order to make the economy more interesting to the players. It turned out that there were two Vendroids all the way across town from each other (a long way to walk in the game) that had particularly low prices on a couple of items. One had a price for selling dolls set to 75 tokens. This wouldn’t be a problem, except that the players found a Pawn Machine that would buy them back for 100 tokens. This is an instant arbitrage opportunity, as the players could make a profit of 25 tokens per doll they bought and then sold, walking them across town each time to do so. This is exactly what some of the players did, taking all their money, buying as many dolls as they could carry, going across town, and selling each one for a profit.
仅凭这一点还不算太糟；你只能通过卖娃娃赚 25 个代币的利润来赚这么多钱。然而，另一个价格异常低的 Vendroid 以 18,000 个代币的价格出售水晶球。这是一大笔钱，意味着要买进和卖出很多娃娃才能积累到买一个水晶球的钱。玩家这样做的原因——花费大部分晚上的时间，来回走动，买进和卖出娃娃——是因为他们发现了一台典当机，可以以30,000 个代币的价格买回水晶球——即时获利 12,000 个代币。请记住，每次典当机买回一个娃娃或一个水晶球时，它就成为代币的来源，凭空创造它们，从而导致游戏中的货币供应泛滥。一旦玩家有钱购买两个水晶球（第二个比第一个容易得多），他们就可以快速买卖更多的水晶球以获取更高的利润，并在一夜之间积累大量银行存款。
That alone wouldn’t have been so bad; you can make only so much money by selling dolls for a 25 token profit. However, the other Vendroid with unusually low pricing sold crystal balls for 18,000 tokens. That was a lot of money, meaning a lot of dolls to buy and sell to build up to be able to buy one crystal ball. The reason the players did so—taking most of the night, going back and forth, buying and selling dolls—is because they discovered a Pawn Machine that would buy the crystal balls back for 30,000 tokens—an instant profit of 12,000 tokens. Keep in mind that each time a Pawn Machine purchased back a doll or a crystal ball, it became a source of tokens, creating them out of nothing, and thus contributing to flooding the money supply in the game. Once the players had the money to purchase two crystal balls (the second being far easier than the first), they were quickly able buy and sell more of them for much higher profits, building up massive bank balances over the course of the night.
第二天早上，兰迪和奇普发现游戏中的钱大幅增加，于是他们追踪了一些突然拥有巨额银行存款的玩家。当被问及此事时，玩家们回答说：“我们公平地得到了它！我们不会告诉你我们是怎么做到的！”他们花了一些时间才相信他们新获得的财富不会被夺走——但 Vendroids 的价格确实得到了修复。对于游戏及其经济来说幸运的是，这些玩家并没有囤积钱财或将其大量投入市场，否则会导致整个游戏出现严重的通货膨胀。相反，他们用这些钱购买游戏中的物品，并在在线游戏中首次进行玩家主导的寻宝活动。
When Randy and Chip found the enormous increase in money in the game the next morning, they tracked down some of the players who suddenly had huge bank balances. When asked about it, the players responded, “We got it fair and square! And we’re not going to tell you how!” It took some time for them to be convinced that their new-found wealth wasn’t going to be taken away—but the prices on the Vendroids did get fixed. Fortunately for the game and its economy, these players didn’t hoard the money or flood it onto the market, which would have caused debilitating inflation across the game. Instead, they used it to buy items in the game and conduct the first player-run treasure hunts in an online game.
这种经济套利和游戏中货币数量快速、大幅增加的例子发生在网络游戏和游戏内经济的早期，但我们今天仍在学习同样的教训。游戏需要来源来创造金钱和其他资源作为对玩家的奖励。如果这些奖励太少，经济就会停滞不前，玩家会感到沮丧并离开。如果奖励与玩家上次获得的奖励大致相同，享乐疲劳将很快出现，因为旧奖励的价值会迅速消失。因此，大多数具有显著经济效益的游戏发现，随着玩家的进步，他们必须不断向游戏中添加更多资金，然后努力寻找足够的资金来再次将资金抽回。例如，随着玩家角色等级的提高，魔兽世界必须向游戏投入越来越多的资金作为奖励，以至于从角色等级 1 到 60 时，杀死每个怪物的游戏货币价值上升了 750 多倍（Giaime 2015）。如果没有类似的巨大资金抽走经济中的资金，这将导致一种从根本上不平衡的局面，即指定的货币（铜、银、金等）不再具有作为玩家奖励的任何意义。
This example of economic arbitrage and the fast, dramatic increase in the amount of money in the game happened in the very earliest days of online games and in-game economies, and yet we are still learning these same lessons today. Games need sources to create money and other resources as rewards for the players. If these rewards are too stingy, the economy will stagnate, and the players will become frustrated and leave. If the rewards are about equal to what a player received last time, hedonic fatigue will quickly settle in, as old rewards fade in value quickly. As a result, most games with significant economies find that they have to continually add more money into the game as the players progress and then struggle to find enough sinks to pull the money back out again. For example, World of Warcraft has to pump more and more money into the game as rewards as player characters rise in levels, to the point that the in-game monetary value for each monster killed goes up more than 750 times from when the character is level 1 to when they’re level 60 (Giaime 2015). If not paired up with similarly enormous sinks to drain the money out of the economy, this leads to a fundamentally unbalanced situation in which the designated currency (copper, silver, gold, and so on) ceases to have any meaning as a reward for the player.
构建游戏经济
创造动态的游戏内经济并防止资金不足和通货膨胀的一种方法是精心构建物品的力量和可用性（稀有性）范围以及玩家可以买卖的物品的价格范围。大型多人在线游戏《Albion Online》就是一个很好的例子（Woodward 2017）。
One way to create an in-game economy that is dynamic and yet guards against insufficient sinks and therefore inflation is to carefully construct the ranges for power and availability (rarity) for objects and the range of prices for those items that players are able to buy and sell. The massively multiplayer game Albion Online is an excellent example of this (Woodward 2017).
在这个游戏中，世界上可以找到的物品被分成不同的等级，以表明稀有性和大致的力量或效用。（将物品划分为这些等级并根据每个属性进行平衡是一项部分平衡任务。）前三个等级用于训练资源，因此它们对经济的影响不大；第 4 至第 8 级是玩家经济的主要部分。
In this game, objects that can be found in the world are grouped into tiers indicating both rarity and approximate power or utility. (Dividing items among these tiers and balancing them on a per-attribute basis is a part-balancing task.) The first three tiers are for training resources, so they don’t significantly affect the economy; Tiers 4 to 8 are the main parts in the player economy.
每个等级都有稀有度——即找到该等级的物品的概率。《Albion Online》还将游戏世界划分为可找到不同等级物品的区域；这是许多游戏中的常用技巧。有无数种方法可以决定游戏世界中物品的所在位置，但通常情况下，物品的价值或威力与获取它们的危险性或难度成正比。
Each tier has a rarity—a probability that a given item from that tier will be found. Albion Online also separates the game world into areas where different tiered items can be found; this is a common technique in many games. There are innumerable ways to decide where items in your game world can be found, though it’s typical to have the value or power of the items scale proportionately with the danger or difficulty involved in obtaining them.
物品威力进程用指数曲线描述，公式为 1.2等级。这意味着每个等级实际上都比前一个等级高 20%，因此 8 级物品的效用（属性值等）大约是 4 级物品的两倍。这种差距足以让玩家在使用越来越高的等级物品时感觉自己在进步，但又不至于让进程路径顶端和底端的玩家之间的差距大到难以置信。指数曲线的这种用途很好，因为它以可预测的方式逐级增加差异。如果希望顶端和底端物品之间的差异更大，可以创建更多等级和/或为指数方程使用更大的基数。以Albion Online为例，设计师在经过大量游戏测试后，根据经验得出了这个方程（总体威力 = 1.2等级）。然而，在发现这条曲线适合游戏后，团队在添加新内容时可以节省大量时间，因为他们不必一遍又一遍地推导曲线。
The item power progression is described by an exponential curve using the equation 1.2tier. This means that each tier is effectively 20% more advanced than the one before, so a Tier 8 item has about double the utility (attribute values, and so on) of a Tier 4 item. This is enough of a spread that the players feel like they are progressing as they use higher- and higher-tier items, but it is not so great that the distance between players at the top and bottom of the progression path is impossibly great. This is a good use for an exponential curve, as it compounds the difference level by level in a predictable way. If you wanted to have more of a difference between the top and bottom items, you could create more levels and/or use a larger base for the exponential equation. In the case of Albion Online, the designers arrived at this equation (overall power = 1.2tier) empirically, after a great deal of playtesting. However, having found that this curve worked for the game, the team was able to save considerable time when adding new content because they didn’t have to derive the curve over and over again.
在《阿尔比恩在线》中，每个等级的每件物品的稀有度也呈指数增长，但曲线要陡峭得多。稀有度描述的是在任何给定机会中找到物品的概率。它以每 3级 的速度增长，这意味着每个等级的稀有度是前一个等级的 3 倍（或找到可能性是前一个等级的 1/3）。因此，游戏中第 8 级物品比第 4 级物品稀有 81 倍。这设置了一个非常陡峭的梯度，这意味着最高两个等级的物品极其稀有，因此也极其有价值。
In Albion Online, the rarity of each item on each tier also goes up exponentially but on a much steeper curve. Rarity describes the probability of finding an item at any given opportunity. It advances at a rate equal to 3tier, meaning that each tier is 3x as rare (or 1/3 as likely to be found) as the one before it. A Tier 8 item in the game is thus 81x rarer than a Tier 4 item. This sets up a very steep gradient, meaning that items on the two highest tiers are extremely rare—and thus extremely valuable.
这两条经济发展曲线（一条代表物品力量，一条代表物品稀有度）的分离意义重大。它可以抑制力量的上升，因为每增加一个单位力量，其稀有度（以及成本）就很高。这种每单位力量的综合成本本身呈非线性增长（考虑到所用两个指数方程的差异）。
The decoupling of these two economic progression curves—one for item power and one for item rarity—is significant. It keeps the upward creep of power in check, as the rarity (and thus cost) per unit increase in power is high. This combined cost per unit power itself increases nonlinearly (given the differences in the two exponential equations used).
除了保持力量和稀有度之间的平衡关系（成比例但以不同的速度增加）之外，这还为玩家驱动的稳健经济创造了条件。《Albion Online》拥有复杂的制作系统，允许玩家将较低等级的物品转化为较高等级的物品，并将较高等级的物品回收到较低等级并赚取一些钱（从而为进入游戏提供资金来源）。我们不会将这个讨论完全与《Albion Online》的设计联系起来，而是以更通用的形式考虑那里使用的原则。
In addition to keeping the power and rarity relationship in balance (proportional but increasing at different rates), this sets up the conditions for a robust player-driven economy. Albion Online has a complex crafting system that allows players to transmute lower-tier items into higher-tier ones and salvage items from a higher tier to a lower tier plus some money (thus providing a source for money to enter the game). Rather than tie this discussion to Albion Online’s design completely, we will consider the principles used there but in a more general form.
价格界限
Albion Online经济抓住的一个关键点就是通常所说的价格界限。这些界限为玩家提供了充足的空间来创建自己的充满活力的经济，价格上下浮动（创造了许多战略和社交互动），同时防止他们将其他人排除在经济之外，并确保经济中的价格保持在相对非通货膨胀的范围内，考虑到游戏中可用的金钱和物品。
A key point that the Albion Online economy captures is what can be generally described as the need for price boundaries. These boundaries allow players ample room to create their own vibrant economy of prices floating up and down (creating lots of strategic and social interactivity), while keeping them from excluding others from the economy and making sure the prices in the economy stay in relatively noninflationary territory, given the money and items available in the game.
设定这些价格界限的一种方法是使用虚拟进出口市场——一组独立的经济来源和汇。如果你想出售一件物品，却找不到任何人愿意从你这里购买，你总是可以去出口市场，出口市场会买下它。虽然卖得不多，但你总是可以在那里卖掉它。同样，如果你想买一件物品，却找不到任何人愿意卖给你，你可以去进口市场，在那里你可以买到（几乎）任何东西。除了游戏设计师可能为特殊目的而留出的少数独特物品外，你可以在进口市场上购买任何东西——但要花很多钱。
One way to set up these price boundaries is with a virtual import/export market—an independent set of economic sources and sinks. If you want to sell an item and can’t find anyone who wants to buy it from you, you can always go down to the export market, which will buy it. It won’t pay much, but you can always sell it there. In the same way, if you want to buy an item and can’t find anyone who will sell it to you, you can go to the import market, where you can buy (almost) anything. With the exception of a few unique items that the game designer may set aside for special purposes, you can purchase anything on the import market—but it will cost you a lot.
这种安排确保所有物品都可以买卖，没有玩家会被完全排除在市场之外（前提是他们有足够的游戏货币来购买他们想要的物品），并允许设计师设定游戏内市场价格的下限和上限。只要这些界限之间有足够的距离，玩家就可以创建自己的自平衡市场，该市场在很大程度上不受过度注入货币的长期影响，因此通货膨胀率很低。偶尔会有暂时的价格如果有人买下所有的马匹或试图一次性出售许多马匹，就会出现波动，但这种变化不会从结构上影响经济的平衡——而且其他玩家总是可以退回到进出口市场，因此没有玩家可以完全控制它。
This arrangement ensures that all items can be bought and sold, that no player is ever completely shut out of the market (provided they have enough in-game currency to purchase an item they want), and allows the designer to set the floor and ceiling on pricing in the in-game market. So long as there’s sufficient distance between those bounds, players can create their own self-balancing market that is largely immune to the long-term effects of an excessive infusion of currency and thus has little inflation. There will from time to time be temporary price fluctuations if someone buys up all the horses or tries to sell many at once, but such changes do not structurally affect the economy’s balance—and other players can always retreat to the import/export market, so no player can fully control it.
例如，如果有人想卖一匹马，他们可以以高于出口市场售价、低于进口市场售价的价格出售。如果他们选择以低于出口市场售价的价格出售马匹，那是他们的决定，但从他们那里买马的人可以直接把马带到出口市场卖掉，立即获利，所以这种情况不太可能发生。同样，如果有人给马匹开出高于进口市场的价格，那么没有人会买，因为他们可以去进口市场以更低的价格买到马匹。
For example, if someone wants to sell a horse, they can put it up for any price that’s greater than what they could sell it for on the export market and less than what someone else could buy a similar horse for on the import market. If they choose to sell the horse for less than what they could get on the export market, that’s their decision, but the person who buys it from them could take the horse right over to the export market and sell it for an instant profit, so that’s unlikely to happen. In the same way, if someone prices a horse higher than the price on the import market, no one is likely to buy it, as they can just go over to the import market instead and buy a horse for less there.
创造市场渠道
创建和维护市场渠道的关键是将低端和高端的价格（出口和进口定价）与每个等级的物品稀有度联系起来。（您也可以用物品威力来代替，尽管稀有度是一种常见的价值，在这里充当核心属性。）这确保了更稀有、更强大的物品总是比稀有度和威力较低的物品价格更高，而且由于指数方程式上升的方式，为稀有物品创造了更广阔的市场。例如，Albion Online能够将低端定价与这些物品的废料和银币（游戏内货币）价值挂钩，而高端定价则遵循稀有度指数曲线。您也可以轻松地将低端出口价格与任何不会使物品完全一文不值的价值挂钩。例如，出口价格可以设置为物品等级稀有度值的 50%，或者，如果你想让这个价格更多地基于玩家的时间，那么可以设置为玩家获得该稀有度物品所需时间的平均时间值（以游戏货币表示）的某个部分。两者都可以表示为每个物品稀有度值的分数。因此，如果稀有度方程式为 1.5等级，则出口（销售）值可以设置为该值的 50%。高端进口价值也可以与稀有度（或强度等）值挂钩，但要为其倍数，例如 200%。（这两个乘数值都必须在游戏测试期间进行调整。）
The key to creating and maintaining the market channel is linking the prices for the low and high end—the export and import pricing—to item rarity at each tier. (You can also substitute item power, though rarity is a commonly available value that serves as a core attribute here.) This ensures that rarer, more powerful items always have higher prices than those of lower rarity and power and, because of the way exponential equations rise, creates a broader market for the rarer items. For example, Albion Online is able to tie the low-end pricing to the value of those items in salvage and silver (the in-game currency), and the high-end pricing follows the rarity exponential curve. You could as easily peg the low-end export prices to any value that doesn’t make the items completely worthless. For example, the export price could be set to 50% of the rarity value of an item’s tier, or if you want to ground this more in the player’s time, some portion of the average time value (expressed in in-game currency) of how long it would take a player to obtain an item of that rarity. Either can be expressed as a fraction of each item’s rarity value. So if the rarity equation is 1.5tier, the export (sale) value could be set to 50% of that. The high-end import value can also be tied to the rarity (or power, and so on) value but at a multiple of it, such as 200%. (Both of these multiplier values must be tuned during playtesting.)
这种安排根据相同的指数方程创建了两条曲线，这意味着只要新添加到游戏中的物品遵循相同的稀有度方案，它们的进出口价格就会自动符合该方案。这也开辟了一个稳定的市场渠道，随着物品价值的扩大而扩大。在这个渠道中，玩家可以设定他们喜欢的任何价格，游戏可以设定上下浮动的供应商价格——例如，根据总体玩家行为，随着供求关系而浮动。图 10.10显示了物品稀有度等级 1 到 10 的游戏的市场渠道的图形描述。进口和出口都使用 1.5级的稀有度方程，出口降价 50%，进口加价 200%。请注意，由于指数方程的工作方式，即使稍微增加方程的基数（此处为 1.5），也会增加市场渠道的宽度，从而增加其中的潜在价格波动。
This arrangement creates two curves based on the same exponential equation, meaning that as long as new items added to the game follow the same rarity scheme, their import and export prices will automatically fit in with this scheme. This also opens up a stable market channel that broadens with item value. Within this channel, the players can set whatever prices they like, and the game can set vendor prices that float up and down—for example, with supply and demand, based on aggregate player behavior. Figure 10.10 shows a graphic depiction of the market channel for a game with item rarity Tiers 1 to 10. Both import and export are using a rarity equation of 1.5tier, with a 50% markdown on export and a 200% markup on import. Note that due to the way exponential equations work, increasing the base (here, 1.5) for the equation even a small amount increases the breadth of the market channel and thus potential price volatility within it.
图 10.10定义并实现平衡的玩家经营经济的市场渠道。阴影区域是渠道——游戏定义的最低销售价格和最高购买价格之间的区域。在稀有度较低的情况下，玩家价格谈判的空间很小，但随着玩家在游戏中不断进步并开始交易更高级别的物品，他们参与更广泛市场渠道的能力就会增强
Figure 10.10 The market channel that defines and enables a balanced player-run economy. The shaded region is the channel—the area between the minimum sales price and the maximum purchase price, as defined by the game. There is little room for player price negotiation at lower rarity values, but as players advance in the game and begin trading in higher-tier items, their ability to participate in a broader market channel increases
综合起来
使用前面的示例，您可以创建一个包含基本武器的游戏，如图 10.8所示，其游戏内成本基于其核心资源价值。如果这些是最低等级或最不稀有的物品，这将为游戏中的物品价格建立一组下限。然后，您可以根据同一组权重确定每个后续不及物物品的成本和收益。例如，使用与上述相同的公式，您可以轻松确定 +2 速度增益的匕首比 +1 伤害的大剑有多大的好处。这反过来又允许您根据游戏的节奏和总体成本效益分组确定每个物品出现在哪个等级。（虽然这里没有显示，但您可以将这些对象放在类似的指数“总收益”曲线上，如图10.7所示。）从那里，您可以创建您的市场渠道，允许玩家在游戏中购买和出售物品（如果您愿意）。请注意，低级物品的渠道很窄，这意味着市场一开始是稳定的，几乎是固定的，随着物品变得越来越强大，玩家变得越来越有经验，渠道就会开放。当然，如果玩家也可以在游戏中制作武器等物品，你需要确保原料的成本和稀有度略低于他们生产的物品的成本，但会按比例上升。能够根据制作资源所生产物品的最低和最高价格来确定制作资源的成本和稀有度，有助于你以适合游戏的方式设置它们。
Using the preceding examples, you could create a game with basic weapons, as shown in Figure 10.8, with their in-game costs based on their core resource values. If these are your lowest-tier or least-rare items, this establishes a set of lower bounds for item prices in the game. Then, you can determine each succeeding intransitive item’s cost and benefits based on this same set of weights. For example, using the same formulas as above, you can easily determine how much more benefit a dagger with +2 Speed gains as opposed to a broad sword with +1 Damage. This in turn allows you to determine which tier each item occurs in, based on the pacing you want for the game and the overall cost–benefit groupings. (While not shown here, you could place these objects along a similar exponential “total benefit” curve, like the one shown in Figure 10.7.) From there you can create your market channel to allow players to buy and sell items in the game if you wish. Note that the channel is narrow for low-tier items, which means the market begins stable and nearly fixed, and it opens up as the items become more powerful and the players become more experienced. Of course, if the players can also craft items like weapons in your game, you need to ensure that the costs and rarities of the ingredients are somewhat lower than but rise proportionately to the cost of the items they produce. Being able to base the costs and rarities of crafting resources on the minimum and maximum prices of the items they produce helps you set them in a way that works within the game.
用几段话来描述这些很容易；但在实际游戏中，工作量就大得多了，因为您可能需要平衡数十或数百个项目。但是，如果您从零件和属性设计开始，确定核心资源，并找到创建相互平衡的多样化不及物对象的方法，您还可以创建适用于每个对象的经济发展曲线，并为玩家创造引人入胜的基于进步的体验。
That’s all easy to say in a few paragraphs; it’s much more work in an actual game, where you might have dozens or hundreds of items to balance. If, however, you proceed from your parts and attribute design, determine the core resources, and find ways to create diverse intransitive objects that are balanced against each other, you can also create an economic progression curve that applies to each object and creates an engaging advancement-based experience for the player.
创造一个平衡的游戏内经济是您将要承担的最复杂和最困难的系统设计任务之一。与本文讨论的其他类型的平衡一样，平衡经济需要数学、分析和启发式技术的结合。在您寻找游戏经济或其他复杂游戏系统中的平衡点时，尝试这一点、构建自己的平衡点、进行游戏测试并运用这些原则仍然是无可替代的。
Creating a balanced in-game economy is one of the most complex and difficult system design tasks you will take on. As with the other types of balance discussed here, balancing an economy requires a blend of mathematical, analytical, and heuristic techniques. There is still no substitute for trying this out, building your own, playtesting it, and using these principles as you find your own balance points in your game economy or other complex game system.
分析天平
Analytical Balance
如第 9 章所述，分析是数学建模的合作伙伴，可用于定量平衡游戏。平衡的这种用途远远超出了确定及物或不及物项目或系统平衡的范围。它更多地关注玩家的整体体验：游戏是否有吸引力和吸引力，玩家是否感觉平衡得当——如果是，那么这种感觉持续多久？对此的分析度量是游戏内指标的输出（因此通常与之配对）。您选择收集的数据可能是某些度量或指标，而收集的结果就是您的分析数据。
As mentioned in Chapter 9, analytics is mathematical modeling’s partner in quantitative methods for balancing your game. This use of balance goes far beyond determining transitive or intransitive item or even system balance. It centers more on the player’s overall experience: is the game attractive and engaging and does it feel appropriately balanced to the player—and if so, for how long? The analytical measures of this are the output of (and thus often paired with) in-game metrics. The data you choose to collect may be certain measures, or metrics, and the results of that collection are your analytical data.
三种主要类型的指标和由此产生的分析数据对于游戏设计和开发非常重要：
Three main types of metrics and resulting analytical data are important to game design and development:
开发过程数据：在开发过程中收集游戏进度数据有助于您了解游戏是否在正轨上。有关详细信息，请参阅第 12 章“让您的游戏变得真实”。
Development process data: Collecting data on your game’s progress during development helps you know whether you are on track. See Chapter 12, “Making Your Game Real,” for more on this.
性能数据：许多游戏需要仔细观察其帧速率、内存使用情况等。软件分析和类似的分析技术可帮助程序员和技术美工确保游戏在目标硬件上正常运行。
Performance data: Many games need to carefully watch their frame rate, use of memory, and so on. Software profiling and similar analytical techniques help programmers and technical artists make sure a game runs well on its target hardware.
用户行为数据：查看玩家作为一个群体而非个人的整体行为，有助于您了解游戏的健康状况和整体成功。
User behavior data: Looking at what your players do overall, as a group rather than as individuals, helps you understand the health and overall success of your game.
本节重点介绍第三类：用户行为数据。这种分析类型与确保玩家在游戏中获得积极、平衡的体验最为相关。与使用数学来构建进程和力量曲线不同，使用用户行为信息并不是为玩家设置一个行动结构；而是基于记录和分析他们实际的行为。因此，这些技术实际上只有在有大量玩家玩你的游戏时才有用（通常直到你接近商业发布时才有用），并且只有当你可以定期（理想情况下接近实时）检索这些数据时才有用。
This section is focused on the third category: user behavior data. This is the type of analytics that’s most related to ensuring that the player has a positive, balanced experience in your game. Unlike using math to build progression and power curves, using user behavior information isn’t about setting up a structure for players to act within; it’s based instead on recording and analyzing what they actually do. These techniques are therefore really only useful when you have a lot of players playing your game (often not until you’re near a commercial launch) and only if you can retrieve this data on a regular (ideally near-real-time) basis.
收集玩家信息
Collecting Player Information
对于模拟桌面游戏和离线游戏，您无法访问玩家的行为数据，因此用户行为数据很难获得，而且通常用处不大。但是，当今开发的大多数游戏都具有某种形式的在线组件或连接。玩家要么直接连接到游戏服务器，要么游戏能够将匿名信息发送回服务器进行分析。此外，免费游戏 (F2P) 会产生并需要大量有关玩家行为的信息，以帮助您了解游戏玩法是否平衡以及游戏整体是否健康。
For analog tabletop games and offline games where you have no access to the player’s behavioral data, user behavior data is difficult to obtain and often of little use. However, most games developed today have some form of online component or connection. Either the player is directly connecting to a game server or the game is able to send anonymous information back to a server for analysis. In addition, free-to-play (F2P) games yield and require a great deal more information about the players’ behavior that helps you understand if the gameplay is balanced and the game overall is healthy.
如果游戏可以向中央服务器报告，那么您可以在游戏软件中调用来记录行为信息。这些信息被记录下来，并通常以短字符串的形式发送回服务器，该字符串标识玩家的 ID、收集这些信息时他们在游戏中的位置以及您可能需要的任何其他信息（例如玩家在当前会话中的进度）。
If the game can report back to a central server, then you can place calls in the game software to record behavioral information. This information is recorded and typically sent back to the server as a short string that identifies a player’s ID, where they are in the game when this information is collected, and any other information you may need (such as how far the player is into their current session).
对所有事情都进行分析很诱人，但这样做弊大于利。归根结底，您只想收集那些有助于您创造更平衡、更有吸引力的体验的信息。您收集的指标通常称为关键绩效指标( KPI )。这些数字和指标可确保您的游戏运行良好、玩家喜欢它并且没有出现严重失衡的情况。换句话说，如果某件事不是 KPI，就不要费心收集它：它将成为您必须花时间分析的数据，而这并没有真正的好处。
It’s tempting to put analytics calls on everything, but this can do more harm than good. Ultimately, you want to gather only the information that will help you create a more balanced, engaging experience. The metrics you collect are often called key performance indicators (KPIs). These are the numbers and metrics you watch to make sure your game is doing well, players are enjoying it, and nothing is horribly out of balance. Another way to say this is that if something is not a KPI, don’t bother collecting it: it becomes data you have to spend time analyzing that has no real benefit.
在收集用户行为数据时，您需要确保信息是最新的并且定期收集。无法访问最近收集的信息或仅偶尔收集这些信息对您的理解毫无帮助。如果信息过期超过一小时左右，则通常会过时且不太有用。如果信息过期超过一天，则可能会导致您对游戏做出错误的决定（除非您回顾性地使用它，或者例如将其与前一周的同一天进行比较以了解行为趋势）。理想的做法是连续且近乎实时地收集数据：您应该知道游戏中随时发生的情况。实际上，这些数据可能每隔几分钟才收集一次，但这已经足够了。
When collecting user behavior data, you need to ensure that the information is recent and is regularly collected. Not being able to access recently collected information or having it be collected only sporadically does not help your understanding at all. If the information is more than an hour or so out of date, it is often stale and not very useful. If it’s more than a day out of date, it may lead you to make poor decisions about the game (unless you’re using it retrospectively or, for example, to compare to the same day in the previous week for trends in behavior). The ideal is continuous and near-real-time data collection: you should know what’s going on in your game at any given moment. Realistically, this data may be collected only once every few minutes, but that’s sufficient.
将玩家分组
Grouping Players Together
你收集的关于某个玩家的数据会与其他玩家的数据汇总成群组（或组），这样你就可以大致了解大多数玩家如何与游戏互动。（除了少数例外，个人玩家行为信息毫无用处，甚至可能会误导你。）创建玩家群组的最常见方法之一是将在某一天或某一周开始玩游戏的所有玩家归入一个群组。然后可以随时间跟踪这个群组，看看他们的行为如何变化。查看群组之间的变化可以让你了解游戏的健康状况；例如，通过查看通过比较 7 月 9 日那一周开始游戏的所有玩家与 7 月 16 日那一周开始游戏的玩家之间的晋级时间、游戏时长或购买行为，你可以看到你的游戏随着时间的推移是变好还是变坏。
The data you collect on a player is aggregated with data on other players into cohorts (or groups) so that you can get an overview of how most players interact with the game. (With only a few exceptions, individual player behavior information isn’t useful and can even lead you astray.) One of the most common methods for creating player cohorts is to put all players who began playing on a certain day or week into one group. This group can then be tracked over time to see how their behavior changes. Looking at changes between cohorts can tell you a great deal about the health of your game; for example, by looking at the differences in advancement time, session length, or purchasing behavior between all players who started during the week of July 9 versus those who started during the week of July 16, you can see if your game is doing better or worse over time.
分析玩家行为
Analyzing Player Behavior
你可以收集多种与玩家行为相关的信息。这些信息大致可以分为以下几类：
There are several categories of information you can gather related to player behavior. These can be loosely grouped into the following categories:
获取和初次体验
Acquisition and first experience
保留
Retention
转换
Conversion
用法
Usage
社区
Community
获得
通过观察您如何“吸引”玩家（将他们带入游戏）以及他们对首次玩游戏的反应（有时称为首次用户体验(FTUE)，是吸引新玩家的关键要素），您可以了解人们对您的游戏的吸引力和参与度的看法。从本质上讲，玩家的 FTUE 是游戏给他们的第一印象，有点像初次约会。如果游戏令人困惑、令人反感或令人沮丧，玩家就会放弃它并且不会回来。但是，如果它很有吸引力、引人入胜并且玩起来很顺畅，玩家更有可能再次回来。
You can learn a great deal about how attractive and engaging people perceive your game to be by looking at how you “acquire” players—bring them into the game—and how they react to their first time in the game—which is sometimes called the first-time user experience (FTUE) and is a critical element in gaining new players. Essentially, the player’s FTUE is the game’s first impression on them, kind of like a first date. If the game is confusing, off-putting, or frustrating, the player will drop it and not come back. If, however, it is attractive, engaging, and plays well with them, players are more likely to come back again.
在查看早期使用分析时，您可能希望查看有多少人进入您的游戏（有多少人启动了游戏程序）以及他们在第一次会话中玩了多远。您可以进一步推迟这一时间，首先查看有多少人下载并安装了您的游戏或在网页上点击了游戏。如果这样做，您会注意到每一步都有极高的流失率。每个游戏都不同，但作为粗略的启发式方法，您可以计算出从玩家首次启动游戏到开始玩游戏，每次鼠标点击或点击都会失去大约一半的玩家。这意味着，如果您需要通过三次点击（例如，选择国家、角色和性别）才能开始玩游戏，那么您可能已经失去了大约 87% 的初始受众：50% 的 50% 的 50%。您的游戏可能会看到略有不同的曲线，但这种启发式方法应该可以帮助您理解尽快让玩家进入游戏的必要性。
In looking at early usage analytics, you may want to look at how many people come into your game—how many start up the game program at all—and how far they get into it in their first session. You may be able to push this back further, to look first at how many people download and install your game or click on the game on a web page. If you do, you will notice an extreme drop-off ratio at every step. Each game is different, but as a rough heuristic, you can count on losing about half of your players with every mouse click or tap from the time they first start your game until they are playing. This means that if you have three clicks to get through (say, selecting a nation, a character, and a gender) before someone can start playing, you have likely lost about 87% of your starting audience: 50% of 50% of 50%. Your game may see a somewhat different curve, but this heuristic should help you understand the necessity of getting players into the game as quickly as possible.
这种玩家的逐渐流失就是所谓的获取漏斗的例子。你的玩家数量永远不会超过那些听说过你的游戏的玩家数量。根据一些统计，听说过你的游戏的玩家与去寻找游戏的玩家（在网络上或商店中）的流失率是 10 倍。对于那些真正下载游戏、运行一次然后成为常规用户的玩家来说也是如此。使用 10 倍流失率意味着在每个阶段，你都会保留 10 分之一的玩家。因此，要获得 1 名常规长期玩家，你必须让 10 名玩家开始游戏，100 名玩家开始游戏。下载或安装它，1,000 人去寻找它，10,000 人去了解它。这些数字令人望而生畏，也许你的游戏会做得更好——但不要指望它。
This progressive loss of players is an instance of what is called the acquisition funnel. You will never have more players than those who have heard of your game. By some counts, the drop-off rate of those who have heard of your game to those who go looking for it (on the web or in a store) is as much as 10x. The same goes for those who actually download the game, run it once, and then become regular users. Using the 10x drop-off ratio means that at each stage, you keep 1 in 10 players. So to get 1 regular, long-term player, you have to get 10 to start the game, 100 to download or install it, 1,000 to go looking for it, and 10,000 to know about it. Those are daunting numbers, and perhaps your game will do better—but don’t count on it.
进入游戏
一旦玩家进入你的游戏，你就可以记录他们在玩游戏时接下来所做的事情。回想一下第 9 章中Tumbleseed的例子。游戏创造者衡量了玩家的进度，发现大多数玩家都没有到达第一个主要检查点，而到达那个位置的玩家中约 80% 没有到达下一个里程碑。这些都是巨大的损失，表明游戏在某种程度上不平衡或不吸引人。要么玩家觉得游戏无聊，要么玩家觉得游戏让人难以承受。每种情况下的补救措施都不同，但根本问题是相同的，只有当你弄清楚玩家为什么进来（显然对游戏感兴趣）以及他们很快离开时才能解决这个问题。
Once players enter your game, you can record what they do next as they play the game. Recall the example of Tumbleseed from Chapter 9. The game creators measured their players’ progress and determined that most of them never made it to the first major checkpoint and that about 80% of the players who made it that far didn’t make it to the next milestone. Those are huge losses, indicating that in some way the game is not balanced or engaging. Either the players are finding the game boring or overwhelming. The remedies in each case are different, but the underlying issue is the same and can be addressed only when you figure out why players come in (clearly interested in the game) and the leave again soon after.
衡量玩家的 FTUE 通常包括他们对游戏教程或开场时刻的反应。教程旨在教玩家如何浏览游戏，但它们往往令人沮丧并妨碍玩家。另一方面，没有教程可能意味着玩家在不知情的情况下进入游戏，这同样令人困惑和沮丧。观察玩家在游戏开始几分钟内的行为可以帮助您平衡游戏的这一部分，以便让尽可能多的玩家继续玩下去。
Measuring a player’s FTUE often includes their response to the game’s tutorial or opening moments. Tutorials are meant to teach players how to navigate the game, and yet they are often just frustrating and get in the player’s way. On the other hand, having no tutorial can mean throwing the player into the game without their knowing what they’re doing, which can be equally confusing and frustrating. Looking at how your players behave during the first few minutes of play can help you balance this part of the game so that you keep as many players as possible playing.
保留
除了让玩家继续玩，你还希望他们回来。留存率通常以天数来衡量。第 0 天 (D0) 是玩家首次打开游戏的那天。D1 是第二天。D7 是他们首次开始玩游戏后的一周，D30 是一个月后。你可以根据玩家开始玩游戏的时间将他们分成几组，并从那时起跟踪他们的行为。有多少百分比的玩家在第 1 天、第 7 天和第 30 天回来？你如何通过提高他们的 FTUE 并确保他们有游戏内激励来改善这一点？例如，许多游戏（尤其是移动平台上的免费游戏）如果玩家在开始玩游戏后的第二天回来，就会给他们奖励或类似的东西。游戏对此非常清楚，并庆祝玩家的回归——这也是应该的。一款无法让玩家第二天回来的游戏将很难取得成功。
In addition to keeping players playing, you want to keep them coming back. Retention is often measured in terms of days. Day zero (D0) is the day someone first opens the game. D1 is the next day. D7 is a week after they first started playing, and D30 is one month later. You can group players into cohorts based on when they started playing and track their behavior from there. What percentage come back on D1, D7, and D30? How can you improve this by improving their FTUE and by making sure they have in-game incentives to come back? For example, many games (especially F2P games on mobile platforms) give the players bonuses or similar if they come back the next day after they start playing. The game is very clear about this and celebrates the player’s return—as well it should. A game that can’t bring players back the next day is going to have a very difficult time succeeding.
跟踪玩家游戏行为的另一个方面是观察每日玩家数量的变化。特定一天的玩家人数称为每日活跃用户( DAU )。有时也称为“心跳”数字，因为它可以让您一眼看出游戏目前是否运行良好。DAU 每周不同天数之间的差异很大，因此周二的下降可能并不重要，因为这通常是游戏玩家最少的一天。另一方面，如果某个周六的 DAU 是前一个周六的一半，那么就要警惕了：一定出了问题，您需要尽快找出问题所在。
Another aspect of tracking players’ playing behavior is to look at how the day-to-day numbers of players changes. The number of individual players who play on any given day is called the daily active users (DAU). This is sometimes referred to as a “heartbeat” number, as it can tell you at a glance if the game is doing okay right now. DAU varies considerably by day of the week, so seeing a drop-off on a Tuesday probably isn’t significant, as this is often the lightest gameplay day for games. On the other hand, if on one Saturday you have half the DAU you had on the previous Saturday, that would be cause for alarm: something is going wrong, and you need to quickly find out what it is.
您还可以查看月活跃用户( MAU )，即过去 30 天内玩过该游戏的个人数量。这是一个回顾性数字，因为它是在 30 天后才开始的。过去。但是，通过查看 DAU 除以 MAU 的比率（即今天玩游戏的人数与过去一个月玩游戏的人数之比），您可以清楚地了解游戏的整体健康状况。这通常被称为游戏的粘性——人们坚持玩游戏并回来再次玩游戏的可能性有多大。如果该比率随着时间的推移而上升，则表明您的游戏是健康的。如果它下降——现在玩游戏的人数（按比例）比以前少——这是一个不好的迹象，您应该迅速采取行动找出问题所在。
You can also look at monthly active users (MAU), the number of individuals who have played the game in the past 30 days. This is a retrospective number, trailing as it does 30 days into the past. However, by looking at the ratio of DAU divided by MAU—how many people played today compared to how many have played in the past month—you can get a strong indication of the game’s overall health. This is often referred to as the game’s stickiness—how likely people are to stick and to come back to play again. If this ratio goes up over time, your game is healthy. If it is going down—fewer people (as a ratio) are playing now than were playing earlier—that’s a bad sign, and you should take quick action to find where the problems are.
您还可以查看玩家在游戏中的持续时间，不仅仅是单次游戏，还包括总时间：这就是所谓的玩家在游戏中的生命周期。大多数玩家的生命周期不到一天——他们只来一次，再也不会回来。改善游戏的 FTUE 和早期平衡，让更多玩家想要回来，这将提高游戏的整体健康度。另一方面，普通玩家会玩这个游戏多长时间？几周还是几个月？他们为什么会停止玩？行为分析可以帮助您了解玩家停止玩游戏的原因——尤其是当他们只是无事可做时（这在内容驱动型游戏中比在系统型游戏中更常见）。
You can also look at how long players keep playing not only in terms of an individual session but overall: this is what’s called the player’s lifetime within the game. Most players’ lifetime is less than one day—they come in once and never come back. Improving your game’s FTUE and early balance so that more players want to come back will increase the health of your game overall. On the other end, how long do regular players play the game? For a few weeks or a few months? Why do they stop? Behavioral analytics can help you understand why players stop playing your game—especially if they simply run out of things to do (which is more common in a content-driven game than a systemic game).
转换
在免费游戏中，绝大多数玩家（通常为 98% 到 99%）从未在游戏中购买过任何东西。严格地说，这些人是玩家，但不是客户。只有真正购买的人才是客户。将玩家转变为客户的行为称为转化。
In F2P games, the vast majority of players—often 98% to 99%—never buy anything in the game at all. In strict terms, these are players but not customers. Only people who actually make a purchase are customers. The act of changing a player to a customer is called conversion.
您可以跟踪特定群组中的玩家何时进行首次购买、他们平均每天花费多少以及他们在首次购买后进行第二次购买的可能性。有很多方法可以查看这些数据，以帮助您更好地了解玩家的行为。例如，通常情况下，在群组基础上，首次体验更好的玩家更有可能在免费游戏中更早、更多地购买。同样，进行过一次购买的玩家更有可能进行另一次购买；因此，如果您能说服他们进行一次购买是一个好主意，他们就更有可能再次在游戏中购买东西。
You can track when players in a given cohort make their first purchase, how much they spend per day on average, and how likely they are to make a second purchase after making a first one. There are lots of ways to look at this data to help you better understand your players’ behavior. For example, it’s often the case that on a cohort basis, players who have a better first-time experience are more likely to purchase sooner and more in a F2P game. Similarly, players who make one purchase are far more likely to make another; so if you can convince them that making one purchase is a good idea, they are more likely to buy things in the game again.
如果您跟踪玩家在免费游戏中的购买量，并将其除以所有玩家，则可以得到每用户平均收入( ARPU )。这是衡量游戏收入实力的关键指标之一。它似乎与平衡性无关，但如果您为免费游戏盈利有效地设计了游戏，玩家平均会获得可观的收入。
If you track how much players purchase in a free-to-play game and divide that across all players, you get the average revenue per user (ARPU). This is one of the key measures of revenue strength in a game. It may not seem to be related to balance, but if you have designed your game effectively for F2P monetization, players will respond with strong revenue on average.
在免费游戏中，还有许多其他指标通常被跟踪，例如每日活跃用户平均收入( ARPDAU )。对于此处的讨论，最重要的剩余转化指标与普通玩家的游戏时间（他们在游戏中的生命周期）以及他们在这段时间内的购买量有关。作为所有玩家的平均值，这被称为终身价值( LTV )。这个指标可能是评估整体游戏和玩家体验平衡以及商业成功的最重要的指标。
There are numerous other metrics that are commonly tracked in F2P games, such as average revenue per daily active user (ARPDAU). For the discussion here, the most important remaining conversion metric is related both to how long the average player plays (their lifetime in the game) and how much they purchase during that time. As an average across all players, this is called lifetime value (LTV). This metric is probably the single most important one for assessing overall game and player experience balance and commercial success.
LTV 是免费游戏“铁公式”的一部分。该公式表示，所有玩家在游戏过程中获得的收入必须超过获取普通玩家的成本（包括所有营销成本）与每位玩家生命周期内游戏的运营成本之和。这是铁律：
LTV is part of what is sometimes called the “iron equation” of F2P games. This equation says that the revenue received across all players for their entire time in the game must exceed the sum of the cost of acquiring the average player (including all marketing costs, for example) and the cost of operating the game on a per-player basis for their lifetime. This is the iron equation:
LTV > eCPU + Ops
LTV > eCPU + Ops
eCPU 是有效每位用户成本——即平均吸引一位新玩家的成本。因此，如果平均每位玩家玩您的游戏一年，每位玩家每月花费 1 美元用于服务器、带宽、开发团队维护等，并且您最终平均需要支付 3 美元的营销费用来吸引每位玩家，那么您获得的收入（所有玩家的平均收入）最好超过 3 美元 + 1 美元 × 12 美元，即 15 美元。这意味着，如果平均而言，每位玩家在整个生命周期中只向您支付 10 美元，那么您基本上就会破产。许多没有从这个角度看待玩家分析的 F2P 游戏都会遭遇这种命运。
eCPU is effective cost per user—how much it costs on average to bring in a new player. So if the average player plays your game for a year, and it costs $1 per month per player for the server, bandwidth, upkeep for the development team, and so on, AND you ended up having to pay $3 in marketing costs to acquire each player, on average, then the amount of revenue you get back, averaged across all players, had better be more than $3 + $1 × 12, or $15. This means that if, on average, across his or her entire lifetime, each player is paying you only $10, you’re essentially going broke. This is a fate that befalls many F2P games that do not look at their player analytics in this light.
所有这些关于收入和货币化的讨论可能并不是您所认为的游戏平衡或游戏设计。然而，货币化设计正日益成为游戏设计的一部分。作为一名游戏设计师，您必须了解并接受设计和分析解决方案，以创建一款商业上成功的游戏。这可能意味着以单一价格在线销售游戏，这是一种更传统的方法，或者免费提供游戏，让玩家有机会选择购买游戏内物品。正确构建游戏体验，让玩家不觉得他们必须购买，而是他们可以随心所欲地购买，并且他们选择购买足以使游戏成功，这是货币化设计和分析游戏平衡的关键部分。
All this talk about revenue and monetization may not be what you think of as game balance or even game design. Monetization design is, however, increasingly part of game design. You as a game designer have to be aware of and open to both design and analytical solutions to creating a game that is commercially successful. This may mean selling a game online for a single price, which is a more traditional approach, or putting it up for free with the opportunity for players to choose to purchase in-game items if they want. Properly constructing the game experience so that players do not feel that they must make purchases but that they can if they wish and that they choose to do so enough to make the game successful is a key part of monetization design and analytical game balance.
用法
除了吸引玩家、留住玩家和鼓励他们在游戏中购买商品的问题之外，您还可以收集和分析各种直接的基于使用情况的指标。
Aside from issues of bringing in players, keeping them playing, and encouraging them to make purchases in the game, there are a variety of straightforward usage-based metrics you can collect and analyze.
例如，如果你的游戏里有任务，这些任务的完成率是否都差不多？如果有一个任务需要重复完成，那么它可能对玩家不利，不利于平衡。或者，如果几乎没有人完成任务，那么它是否太难或太乏味了？你还可以看看人们在游戏中是如何死亡或失败的；游戏中是否存在一些你在其他情况下看不到的方面，但通过观察导致玩家死亡或失败的原因，你就能发现游戏中不平衡的部分？
For example, if you have quests in your game, do they all get completed about the same amount? If there is one that is done repeatedly, it might be unbalanced in the player’s favor. Or if there is that almost no one completes, is it too difficult or tedious? You can also look at how people die in the game or how they lose; are there aspects of the game that you wouldn’t see otherwise, but by looking at what leads to the player’s demise or loss, you see an unbalanced portion of the game?
还有类似的经济指标。在本章前面提到的Habitat的例子中，游戏管理员很幸运地制定了衡量游戏总体货币量变化和每个玩家账户中游戏货币余额的指标。这使他们能够在失控之前发现严重的、可能毁掉游戏的经济不平衡。
There are similar economic measures, too. In the example from Habitat recounted earlier in this chapter, the game’s administrators were fortunate to have put in place measures of the change in the amount of money in the game overall and the balance of in-game money in each player’s account on a daily basis. This enabled them to uncover a serious, potentially game-killing economic imbalance before it could get too far out of control.
任何影响游戏使用、资源和渠道以及玩家可以积累多少核心资源的因素都值得进行分析跟踪。虽然不要收集比您实际能用到的更多的分析数据，如果您想知道从哪里开始，请查看您在游戏中播放声音的位置：任何为玩家提供听觉反馈的事件都可能是您想要记录的事件。如果这会产生太多无用的数据，您可以开始过滤这些分析调用的数量，但这样做可能会让您更好地了解您想要收集的数据类型。
Anything that affects the usage of your game, its sources and sinks, and how much of any core resource a player can build up is worth tracking analytically. While it is also important to not collect more analytical data than you can really use, if you are trying to figure out where to start, look at where you play sounds in the game: any event that provides auditory feedback to the player is likely an event you want to record as well. If this creates too much data that doesn’t help, you can begin to filter these analytic calls down in number, but you will likely gain a better idea of the kinds of data you want to collect as you do so.
社区
最后，通过使用分析来更好地了解玩家的社交和社区导向行为，您可以了解很多有关游戏整体健康和平衡的信息。例如，您可以跟踪玩家花在一般聊天和与特定人聊天上的时间，以及形成的持久社交团体（例如公会）的数量及其在游戏中的活动。这使您至少能够建立一个近似的社交联系模型，以了解谁与谁有联系。当然，这并不是所有游戏都需要的，但能够绘制出游戏中的社交网络可以揭示出很多关于谁是舆论制造者和早期采用者的信息，您可能希望关注他们的行为。例如，如果一组有影响力的玩家开始减少他们在游戏中花费的时间，这可能是麻烦的早期迹象（即使只是他们已经用完了内容）。
Finally, by using analytics to better understand the players’ social and community-oriented behavior, you can tell a great deal about the game’s overall health and balance. You can, for example, track the amount of time players spend chatting in general and with particular people, along with the number of persistent social groups (for example, guilds) that form and their activity in the game. This enables you to build at least an approximate model of social contact in terms of who is connected to whom. This isn’t needed for all games, of course, but being able to map out the social networks in your game can reveal a lot about who are the opinion-makers and early adopters whose behavior you might want to attend to. If, for example, a set of influential players begin reducing the amount of time they spend in the game, this could be an early sign of trouble (even just that they have run out of content).
您还可以跟踪收到的有关游戏不同部分的投诉数量和类型。这当然可以帮助发现错误，但也可以帮助您找到玩家认为不平衡的游戏部分——太难、太乏味或只是没有吸引力。纠正这些问题可以让游戏对每个人都更好。
You can also track the number and type of complaints you receive about different parts of the game. This can help reveal bugs, certainly, but it can also help you find parts of the game that the players feel are unbalanced—too difficult, tedious, or just not engaging. Correcting these makes the game better for everyone.
概括
Summary
平衡复杂系统和游戏体验是一整套困难、复杂且通常令人望而生畏的任务。本章介绍了创建和平衡游戏中从简单的原子部分到大型复杂层次系统所需的实际元素和思维框架。
Balancing complex systems and gameplay experiences is a whole set of difficult, complex, often daunting tasks. This chapter provides an introduction to the practical elements and mental framework you need to create and balance everything from simple atomic parts to large complex hierarchical systems in a game.
请记住，平衡必然是一个持续的过程。它永远不会完美，也永远不会真正完成。如果游戏对你和玩家来说基本上是公平的，那么你就朝着正确的方向前进了。还要记住，每个玩你的游戏的玩家都有可能以新的方式破坏游戏的平衡。然而，如果你创建了弹性系统并尽可能地平衡它们，那么你就可以降低游戏崩溃和玩家失去对游戏参与感的可能性。
Remember that balancing is necessarily an ongoing exercise. It’s never perfect, and it’s never really done. If the game seems basically fair to you and to the players, you’re moving in the right direction. Remember, too, that every player who plays your game has the possibility of unbalancing it in new ways. If you have created resilient systems and worked to balance them as well as you can, however, you reduce the probability of the game breaking and of the player losing their sense of engagement with your game.
1.如第 6 章所述，早期（且极具吸引力）基于 ASCII 的放置游戏《暗室》的创作者 Michael Townsend表示：“我的目标人群是喜欢数字上升的人和喜欢探索未知的人的交集”（Alexander 2014）。这两种动机相当于行动/反馈、短期和长期认知互动的强大组合。
1. As mentioned in Chapter 6, Michael Townsend, creator of the early (and highly engaging) ASCII-based idle game A Dark Room, said, “My target demographic was the intersection of People Who Like it When Numbers Go Up and People Who Like Exploring the Unknown” (Alexander 2014). These dual motivations amount to a potent combination of action/feedback, short-term, and long-term cognitive interactivity.
2.请注意，从技术上讲，折线图在这里并不合适。因为绘制的数值在不同的武器之间并不是连续变化的（例如，在短剑和弯刀之间没有中间值），所以这些数据实际上应该以条形图显示。但是，我们使用此图来直观地评估各种武器之间的关系。在这种情况下，使用这样的折线图通常可以让您更好地了解整体数据。不要害怕探索可视化数据的不同方式：即使图表从技术上讲对数据来说是“错误的”，正确的图形通常也可以提供重要的见解。
2. Note that a line graph isn’t technically appropriate here. Because the values graphed don’t vary continuously from one weapon to another—there’s nothing midway between the short sword and cutlass, for example—this data should really be shown in a bar chart. However, we’re using this graph to visually assess how the various weapons relate to each other. In such cases, using a line graph like this can often give you a better feel for the data overall. Don’t be afraid to explore different ways of visualizing your data: often the right graphic can provide important insights, even if the graph is technically “wrong” for the data.
第十一章
CHAPTER 11
团队合作
WORKING AS A TEAM
除了具备创造性、系统构建或技术技能之外，要想成为一名成功的游戏设计师，您还必须能够有效地作为团队的一员工作，并帮助其他人也这样做。
In addition to any creative, system-building, or technical skills you have, to be successful as a game designer, you have to be able to work effectively as part of a team and help others do so as well.
成功的团队并非偶然形成；他们是经过精心打造的，并自成体系。了解开发团队中的各种角色以及他们如何共同组成有效的团队将有助于您与他人合作开发游戏。
Successful teams don’t just happen; they’re built intentionally, becoming systems of their own. Understanding the various roles in a development team and how they together form effective teams will help you work with others to build your game.
团队合作
Teamwork
任何规模的游戏都极少由一个人独自制作。由于制作任何游戏都需要各种各样的技能，几乎所有游戏都是多人齐心协力的成果，他们有着共同的愿景。这需要在不同领域投入大量工作——游戏设计、编程、艺术、音效、写作、项目管理、营销等等。
It’s extremely rare for a game of any size to be made by one person on their own. Because of the wide variety of skills needed to create any game, almost all of them are products of multiple people coming together with a shared vision. This requires an immense amount of work in different disciplines—game design, programming, art, sound, writing, project management, marketing, and so on.
要使这一切顺利进行，你必须具备超越构思和详细设计游戏设计所需的技能。除了能够向非游戏设计师传达你的想法之外，你还必须能够有效地与他们合作，并确保每个人都能很好地合作。你必须能够召集最优秀的人才，使用最好的流程和工具来让你的游戏成为现实。做到这一点绝非易事，而且经常需要游戏设计师（和其他人）走出自己的舒适区。从很多方面来看，设计游戏是最简单的部分。与团队一起开发游戏则要困难得多。
To make all this work, you have to move beyond the set of skills involved in conceiving and detailing a game design. In addition to being able to communicate your idea to others who aren’t game designers, you have to be able to work effectively with them and make sure every-one’s working together well. You have to be able to bring together the best people and use the best processes and tools to make your game real. Doing this is never simple and often takes game designers (and others) well out of their comfort zone. In many ways, designing a game is the easy part. Developing it with a team is much more difficult.
成功团队的做法
What Successful Teams Do
人们很容易低估组建和维持一支成功团队的难度，以及这对游戏成功和个人长期职业成功的重要性。许多管理理论都推测了团队运作良好的原因，你可以找到很多关于这个主题的好书。幸运的是，我们拥有关于如何打造强大、成功的团队的实际数据——至少对于游戏开发而言。
It’s easy to underestimate how difficult it can be to assemble and maintain a successful team and how critically important this is for your game’s success and your own long-term career success. Many management theories have speculated about what makes teams work well, and you can find lots of good books on this topic. Fortunately, we have actual data on what makes strong, successful teams—at least for game development.
2014 年，由 Paul Tozour 领导的“游戏成果项目”小组发表了一些关于游戏成功或失败原因的精彩而详细的研究成果（Tozour 等人，2014 年）。他们创建了一份包含约 120 个问题的详细调查，并从已完成并发布游戏的团队那里收集了近 300 份回复。用他们的话来说，这为他们带来了“数据金矿”。
In 2014, a group called the Game Outcomes Project, led by Paul Tozour, published some fascinating, detailed work on why games succeed or fail (Tozour et al. 2014). They created a detailed survey of about 120 questions and gathered nearly 300 responses from teams that had completed and released their games. This gave them, in their words, a “gold mine” of data.
通过本次调查的结果，Tozour 团队能够找出与游戏成功存在正相关或负相关的多种做法。他们对“成功”的定义很宽泛，涉及一个或多个因素：
With the results of this survey, Tozour’s team was able to isolate multiple practices that correlate positively or negatively with successful games. They defined “success” broadly, relating to one or more factors:
投资回报率（ROI）——即游戏的足够盈利能力
Return-on-investment (ROI)—that is, sufficient profitability of the game
获得评论或艺术上的成功
Critical or artistic success
实现对团队来说重要的内部目标
Meeting internal goals important to the team
团队确定的每项效果都具有统计意义。这意味着，如果您遵循所指出的做法，您的游戏项目成功的机会就会明显增加。
Each of the effects the team identified is statistically significant. This means that if you follow the practices indicated, you clearly increase the chance that your game project will be successful.
Tozour 团队列出了“前 40 名”项目，按照它们对产品成功的影响程度排序。这些项目以略微简化的形式呈现在这里，并按主题分组。（当然建议阅读有关研究结果的原始帖子。）
Tozour’s team made a list of their “top 40” items, in order of how much they affect a product’s success. These are presented here in a somewhat abbreviated form and grouped thematically. (Reading the original posts on the study results is certainly recommended.)
如果将最重要的项目归结起来，则可以根据它们对创建成功游戏的贡献程度分为以下几类：
The top items, if you boil them down, fall into these categories in terms of how much they contribute to creating a successful game:
创建并维护一个清晰、令人信服的愿景，以表明你的团队正在做什么
Creating and maintaining a clear, compelling vision of what your team is making
高效工作，保持专注，避免不必要的干扰和变化——但不要过度加班
Working effectively, staying focused, and avoiding unnecessary distractions and changes—but without extensive crunching
建立相互信任和尊重、相互严格要求、但也允许犯错的有凝聚力的团队
Building cohesive teams that trust and respect each other, hold each other to high standards, but allow for mistakes too
清晰公开地沟通，解决分歧，并定期会面
Communicating clearly and openly, resolving differences, and meeting regularly
从专业、个人和财务角度，将每个团队成员视为个体
Treating each team member as an individual—professionally, personally, and financially
那么，这份最重要的项目清单上没有列出什么呢？有两件大事立即引人注目：
So what’s not on this list of most important items? Two big things leap out immediately:
拥有生产方法很重要（列表中排名第 26），但是否使用敏捷、瀑布或其他方法并不重要。
Having a production methodology is important (#26 on their list), but whether you use Agile, Waterfall, or something else is less important.
拥有一支经验丰富的团队也很重要。它没有直接出现在列表中，但如果出现，它将在这份重要因素列表中排在第 40 位（共 36 位）。
Having an experienced team is also important. It doesn’t appear directly on the list, but if it did, it would be down around #36 out of 40 on this list of significant factors.
上述几点可能并不那么令人惊讶，但也并非显而易见。它们应该是游戏开发的基本规则，但太多的开发团队忽视或违反了其中的一条或多条，然后想知道为什么他们没有成功。他们从来没有清楚地了解自己在做什么，或者他们过于频繁地改变方向或技术平台。他们难以公开交流，让分歧持续数月或数年。或者他们允许自己陷入关于某种生产方法或某种工具集的激烈争论。这些都可能是导致游戏开发项目失败的绝佳方式。
The above items may not be all that surprising, but neither are they necessarily obvious. They should be cardinal rules of game development, and yet far too many development teams ignore or violate one or more of them and then wonder why they aren’t successful. They never quite get a clear vision of what they’re doing, or they change course or technology platforms far too often. They have difficulty communicating openly and let disagreements fester and grow for months or years. Or they allow themselves to get into heartfelt arguments about one production method or another or one tool set or another. Each of these is a great way to make your game development project fail.
开发一款游戏本身就已经很困难了，更不用说您的团队会成为压力和额外困难的来源。如果您能与团队讨论这些原则，并让每个人都承诺遵循这些原则（包括当有人在其中一个原则上失败时互相帮助——列表中的第 5 和第 35 条），那么您的团队和游戏成功的机会将大大增加。
Developing a game is hard enough without your team being a source of stress and added difficulty. If you can discuss these principles with your team and get everyone to commit to following them (including helping each other when someone falls down on one of these—#5 and #35 on the list), then you will greatly increase the chance of your team and your game being successful.
进一步细分上述简略列表，以下部分将介绍具体领域以及它们在原始结果中的重要性。这些列表中括号内的数字（例如 (#1)）表示特定项目在原始游戏成果项目列表中出现的位置，该列表按重要性程度而非主题分组。
Breaking down the above abbreviated list further, the following sections look at specific areas and where they appeared in terms of significance in the original results. Numbers in parentheses in these lists—such as (#1)—indicate where a particular item appeared on the original Game Outcomes Project list, which was grouped by degree of significance rather than theme.
产品愿景
Product Vision
每款游戏都有一个统一的愿景，告诉玩家游戏的内容。愿景与玩家的整体体验一致。它包括游戏中的互动类型、你希望玩家感受到的情感以及你包含的游戏机制类型。正如第 6 章“设计整体体验”中所讨论的，这是您应该在开发早期就创建的东西。
Every game has a unifying vision that tells what the game is about. The vision is consistent with the whole of the player’s experience. It includes the kinds of interactivity in the game, the emotions you want the player to feel, and the kinds of game mechanics you include. As discussed in Chapter 6, “Designing the Whole Experience,” this is something you should create early on in development.
正如游戏成果项目结果所示，清晰的产品愿景的各个方面对于您的成功至关重要。以下按重要性排序：
As shown by the Game Outcomes Project results, various aspects of having a clear product vision are crucial to your success. Here they are, in order of importance:
愿景清晰，并被团队理解（#1）。
The vision is clear and understood by the team (#1).
这包括将要交付的内容以及对团队的期望（#1）。
This includes what will be delivered and what’s expected of the team (#1).
产品愿景体现在规格/设计文档中，并由正在进行的设计工作补充（#36）。
The product vision is embodied in specs/design documents, complemented by ongoing design work (#36).
这个愿景令人信服；它是可行的，并能引导明确的行动（#1）。
The vision is compelling; it is viable and leads to clear action (#1).
愿景是一致的，不会随着时间的推移而漂移（#2）。
The vision is consistent and does not drift over time (#2).
团队对于变化或偏差持谨慎态度（#2）。
The team is cautious about changes or deviations (#2).
当需要进行变更时，所有利益相关者都会被征召（#21）。
All stakeholders are enlisted when changes are necessary (#21).
愿景是共享的：团队相信它并对此充满热情（#3）。
The vision is shared: the team believes in and is enthusiastic about it (#3).
拥有一个清晰定义、记录清晰的愿景以及一个全心投入执行的团队的重要性怎么强调都不为过。这也是第 6 章中描述的概念文档如此重要的原因之一。不仅需要清晰定义愿景，还需要有良好的记录并让团队理解。团队的访客应该能够通过拦住大厅中的任何人并询问正在做什么、它与整个团队愿景有何关联以及他们认为项目将走向何方来获得一致的答案。如果您发现自己所在的团队的愿景不明确或与正在做的事情不一致，请放下其他一切，直到您解决这些问题。其他任何事情都只会导致灾难。
It’s difficult to overstate the importance of having a clearly defined vision that is clearly documented and a team that is fully involved in executing on it. This is one reason the concept document described in Chapter 6 is so important. Not only does the vision need to be clearly defined, it needs to be well documented and understood by the team. A visitor to the team should be able to get consistent answers by stopping anyone in the hall and asking what doing, how it connects to the overall team vision, and where they see the project going. If you find yourself on a team where the vision isn’t clear or isn’t consistent with what’s being done, drop everything else until you have these issues resolved. Anything else just leads to disaster.
所有这些并不是说愿景不能改变。在设计、制作原型和测试创意时，你会发现游戏愿景中以前没有看到的新方面，你应该努力将它们纳入其中。然而，这并不意味着愿景应该每周改变或随着时间的推移而漂移。正如游戏成果项目的结果所表明的那样，拥有清晰、一致、共享且沟通良好的愿景对于在开发游戏方面取得任何成功都至关重要。
All this is not to say that the vision can’t change. As you design, prototype, and test ideas, you will discover new aspects of the game vision you didn’t see before, and you should work to include them. However, that doesn’t mean the vision should change every week or drift over time. As the Game Outcomes Project results indicate, having a clear, consistent, shared, and well-communicated vision is vital to having any sort of success in developing your game.
不过，有时外部会强行改变你的想法；也许其他人发布的游戏与你的太过相似，或者你的预算或计划发生了变化。当这种情况发生时，尽快修改并重新创建游戏愿景，确保让所有利益相关者参与并获得认可（#21），并确保每个人都理解（#1）并对产品方向充满热情（#3）。
Sometimes, though, change will be forced on you from outside; maybe someone else releases a game too close to your own, or your budget or schedule realities change. When this happens, revise and re-create the game vision as quickly as possible, being sure to involve and get buy-in from all stakeholders (#21) and ensure that everyone understands (#1) and is enthusiastic about (#3) the product direction.
最后，请注意，这种清晰的愿景不仅适用于团队，还包括每个人的角色和期望。尽早解决这个问题并定期检查以确保没有人的角色或期望发生变化，这一点很重要。
Finally, note that this clarity of vision isn’t just for the team but includes each person’s role and expectations. Working this out early and checking in periodically to make sure that no one’s role or expectations have shifted is important.
产品开发
Product Development
开发游戏产品至少可以说是困难的。这种开发的结果必须是任何拥有适当硬件或能够打开盒子并阅读规则的人都可以使用的东西。通常，游戏产品是商业销售的产品，尽管越来越多的游戏用于教育或类似环境。无论如何，从概念到完全实现的独立游戏产品非常困难，许多此类努力都无法实现。
Developing a game as a product is difficult, to say the least. The result of this development has to be something that can be used by anyone with the appropriate hardware or who can open the box and read the rules. Typically, a game as a product is something that’s sold commercially, though an increasing number of games are used in educational or similar contexts. In any case, moving from a concept to a fully realized, freestanding game as a product is difficult enough that many such efforts never make it.
打造一款成功的游戏产品需要坚守游戏愿景，并组建一支团结的团队，最重要的是，他们要合作无间。如果这些要素都到位，那么许多其他方面（技术、范围、预算等）就会变得容易得多。
Creating a successful game product requires adherence to the game vision and a unified team that, above all else, works together well. If those elements are in place, a surprising number of other aspects (technology, scope, budget, and so on) become much easier to manage.
根据游戏成果项目，以下是成功产品开发的首要事项：
These are the top-priority items for successful product development, according to the Game Outcomes Project:
开发以游戏愿景 (#1) 为中心并由其驱动。
Development is focused and driven by the game vision (#1).
团队成员理解并执行由产品愿景 (#1) 驱动的高优先级任务。
Team members understand and act on high-priority tasks driven by the product vision (#1).
个人不会按照自己的优先事项行事（#1、#19）。
Individuals don’t go off on their own priorities (#1, #19).
领导者主动识别并减轻潜在风险（#2）。
Leaders proactively identify and mitigate potential risks (#2).
团队运作高效（#4）。
The team works effectively (#4).
团队消除了干扰，避免了延长关键时间（#4）。
The team removes distractions and avoids extended crunch time (#4).
该团队接受了培训并使用了其选择的生产方法（#26）。
The team is trained on and uses its chosen production methodology (#26).
团队确保工具运行良好并能有效工作（#29）。
The team ensures that tools work well and allow effective work (#29).
团队经常尽可能准确地估计任务持续时间（#16）。
The team estimates task durations frequently and as accurately as possible (#16).
团队成员有权决定自己的日常任务，并参与确定任务的时间分配（#30）。
Team members have the authority to determine their own day-to-day tasks and are involved in determining time allocations for tasks (#30).
团队在开发过程中仔细管理任何必要的技术变更（#31）。
The team carefully manages any necessary technology changes during development (#31).
团队根据项目的当前状态确定每个里程碑的优先级 (#40)。
The team determines priorities for each milestone, based on the current state of the project (#40).
游戏开发应该由游戏愿景驱动，这似乎是显而易见的。不幸的是，项目很容易偏离与愿景无关的方向；也许团队并没有真正认同这个愿景（甚至只有一个人没有），或者团队只是一天天地远离它。确保每个人都在从事对设计愿景有贡献的最高优先级任务，而不仅仅是从事引人注目的干扰或某人的个人优先事项，将有助于防止正在进行的工作偏离商定的愿景。
It may seem obvious to say that a game’s development should be driven by the vision for the game. Unfortunately, it’s easy for a project to lurch off in a direction not really connected to the vision; maybe the team hasn’t really bought in to the vision (or even just one person hasn’t), or perhaps the team just slowly drifts away from it day by day. Making sure that everyone is working on the highest-priority tasks contributing to the design vision and not just working on shiny distractions or someone’s personal priority will help keep the work being done from diverging from the agreed-upon vision.
保持项目正常进行还意味着项目负责人必须直面困难问题，并根据需要消除或降低风险。这比听起来要难：总会有制作人或其他团队负责人需要处理的问题（并避免分散团队的注意力）。成功做到这一点可以让团队成员更有效地工作，并更好地控制自己的工作。这种本地团队控制，包括尽可能多地确定个人自己的当务之急和任务估计（根据先前的表现提供反馈），对于长期保持团队良好运作至关重要，从而确保项目成功。
Keeping a project on track also means that those leading it have to face difficult issues squarely and quickly, removing or mitigating risks as needed. This can be harder to do than it sounds: there are always issues arising that a producer or other team leader needs to handle (and keep from distracting the team). Doing so successfully allows team members to work more effectively and to take more control over their own work. This kind of local team control, including as much as possible determining individuals’ own immediate priorities and task estimates (with feedback based on prior performance) is vital to keeping the team working well over the long haul—and thus to project success.
要想在数月甚至数年内出色地完成一个项目，一个重要方面就是要大大减少团队必须投入的加班时间（连续数天或数周的长时间工作）。加班时间是游戏行业的一个持续话题，有些团队完全接受它，而有些团队则完全避免它。长时间工作的负面影响是有据可查的（CDC 2017），但它仍然是整个行业都存在的问题。
An important aspect of working well on a project for months or even years is significantly limiting the amount of crunch time (long hours for many days or weeks) that the team has to put in. Crunch time is an ongoing topic in the games industry, with some teams fully accepting it and others avoiding it entirely. The negative effects of working long hours are well documented (CDC 2017), but it remains a presence and an issue across the industry.
在开展任何创意项目时，都会存在难以或无法安排的未知因素。当突然出现新的优先事项或问题，或者任务没有按计划进行时，整个团队很容易落后于计划。如果团队坚持其他原则（清晰的愿景、处理高优先级项目等），偶尔发生这种情况并不是什么大问题。但是，当愿景不清晰、生产曲折、优先级经常更改并且任务估计不准确时，团队最终不得不投入数周的大量时间来满足重要的（通常不可更改的）生产日期。随着时间的推移，这会削弱团队的表现和士气，从长远来看，它最终不会让游戏变得更好。
When working on any creative project, there will be unknowns that are difficult or impossible to schedule. When new priorities or problems arise suddenly, or when a task does not go as planned, it’s easy for the whole team to fall behind schedule. Having this happen occasionally for short periods of time is not a significant issue if the team holds to the rest of the principles here (clear vision, working on high-priority items, and so on). However, when the vision isn’t clear, production meanders, priorities change often, and tasks are poorly estimated, the team ends up having to put in many weeks of long hours to meet important (often immovable) production dates. Over time, this erodes team performance and morale, and it doesn’t end up making for a better game in the long run.
团队
Teams
几乎所有游戏都是由团队制作的，作为一名游戏设计师，你的大部分职业生涯都将以团队为单位进行。成功的游戏项目团队有哪些共同的特点？游戏成果项目强调了几个关键特征：
Nearly all games are made by teams, and as a game designer, you will spend most of your career working as part of a team. What attributes do teams on successful game projects share in common? The Game Outcomes Project highlights several key characteristics:
团队凝聚力强，成员信任游戏愿景、团队领导者和彼此。他们拥有共同的价值观和使命感（#1、#8、#14、#17）。
The team is cohesive, and its members believe in the game vision, team leaders, and each other. They share values and their sense of mission (#1, #8, #14, #17).
该团队努力减少人员流动（#6），但也会迅速清除破坏性强/不尊重他人的成员（#12，#13）。
The team works to minimize turnover (#6) but also removes disruptive/disrespectful members swiftly (#12, #13).
团队认为团体和产品优先级高于个人优先级（#19）。
The team maintains group and product priorities over individual priorities (#19).
团队组织良好，团队结构清晰明了（#25）。
The team is well organized, and the structure of the team is clearly understood (#25).
团队营造了一种管理层和团队之间相互尊重的氛围（#12）。
The team fosters an environment of mutual respect from management and the team (#12).
团队营造了一种乐于助人的氛围（#35）。
The team fosters an atmosphere of helpfulness (#35).
团队能够承担风险（在产品愿景和优先级范围内）并从错误中吸取教训（#5）。
The team is able to take risks (within the bounds of the product vision and priorities) and learn from mistakes (#5).
团队成员避免浪费的设计反复（#9）。
Team members avoid wasteful design thrashing (#9).
即使没有成功，团队成员也会庆祝新颖的想法（#10）。
Team members celebrate novel ideas even if they don’t work out (#10).
团队成员公开讨论失败（#18）。
Team members discuss failures openly (#18).
团队成员彼此严格要求（#11、#17）。
Team members hold each other to high standards (#11, #17).
他们邀请尊重的合作和工作审查（#11、#39）。
They invite respectful collaboration and review of work (#11, #39).
团队成员奖励那些寻求帮助或支持他人的人（#35）。
Team members reward those who ask for help or who support others (#35).
当有反作用行为时，他们会在必要时互相指责（#17）。
They call each other out when necessary on counterproductive behaviors (#17).
个人职责和角色与他们的技能相匹配（#20）。
Individual responsibilities and roles match with their skills (#20).
个人有机会学习和提高自己的技能（#28）。
Individuals have opportunities to learn and grow their skills (#28).
团队成员互相监督以确保按时完成任务——但不要影响团队士气（#34）。
Team members hold each other accountable for meeting deadlines—but not to the point of eroding team morale (#34).
正如本章所讨论的，拥有有效的团队活力对于项目的进展至关重要。这在很大程度上使项目成为人们想要参与而不是每天害怕处理的事情。其中有趣的一点是，虽然团队凝聚力和缺乏人员流动很重要，但迅速清除那些破坏性强、将自己的优先事项放在首位或在社交或职业上有害的人也很重要。虽然围绕“难以共事但又太熟练而无法摆脱的天才”有一些神话色彩，但长期的经验表明，最好尽快将这类人从团队中移除。让他们留下会助长他们的行为，并为其他所有人创造一个有害的环境。虽然任何人都不应该未经适当考虑就被从团队中移除，但再给那些破坏团队努力或其他团队成员的人一次机会无助于建立团队凝聚力；从长远来看，这只会削弱团队。
As discussed in this chapter, having an effective team dynamic is crucial to a project’s progress. This is a lot of what makes a project something people want to be involved in rather than something they dread dealing with every day. An interesting part of this is that while team cohesion and lack of turnover are important, so is quickly removing those who are disruptive, put their own priorities first, or are otherwise socially or professionally toxic. While there is something of a mythology surrounding the “genius who’s difficult to work with but is just too skilled to get rid of,” long experience shows that such people are best removed from the team quickly. Letting them stay enables their behavior and creates a toxic environment for everyone else. While no one should be removed from a team without due consideration, giving yet another chance to someone who undermines the team’s efforts or the other team members doesn’t help build team cohesion; it just weakens the team in the long run.
这并不是说犯了一个错误就应该让某人出局——团队成员应该能够尝试并失败——但尝试并失败与对团队产生破坏性影响之间是有区别的。那些不以团队最佳利益行事的人，无论他们有多熟练或他们在团队中扮演的角色有多重要，都应该迅速得到劝告，然后在必要时解雇他们。团队成员需要对自己的工作以及他们对每个人的工作和成功的贡献相互负责。这包括按时完成工作，平衡有时需要承担的风险，并保持高标准。
This isn’t to say that with one mistake someone should be out—team members should be able to try things and fail—but there’s a difference between trying and failing and being a destructive influence on a team. People who do not act in the team’s best interests, no matter how skilled they are or how important their role to the team, should be counseled quickly and then, if necessary, let go. Team members need to hold each other accountable for their work and for how they contribute to everyone’s work and success. This includes getting their work done on time, balanced with the need to sometimes take risks, and maintaining high standards.
沟通
Communication
与其他人（拥有不同技能、经验和目标的人）一起工作需要持续有效的沟通。团队中的每个人都需要具备这些技能。作为一名游戏设计师，你经常会被要求与团队其他部分的成员合作，你的沟通能力将极大地影响产品的潜在成功。
Working together with others—those with different skill sets, experiences, and goals—requires constant, effective communication. Everyone on a team needs to have these skills. As a game designer, you will often be called on to work with members of other parts of the team, and your ability to communicate will significantly affect the potential success of the product.
以下是成功游戏团队所共有的有效沟通的一些方面：
The following are some of the aspects of effective communication that successful game teams share:
每个人都认同团队或团队领导做出的决定（#3）。
Everyone buys into decisions made by the team or team leaders (#3).
团队迅速解决分歧（无论是产品分歧还是个人分歧）（#7、#12）。
The team resolves differences—product or personal—swiftly (#7, #12).
团队成员经常收到有关其工作的反馈（#9）。
Team members frequently receive feedback on their work (#9).
团队成员因出色完成任务而获得充分赞扬（#22）。
Team members receive ample praise on tasks that are well done (#22).
“无意外管理”：如果有重大坏消息，不要掩盖或隐瞒；让相关人员知道（#9）。
“No surprises management”: If there’s significant bad news, don’t cover it up or hold it back; let the relevant people know (#9).
该团队能够并且愿意公开发言，即使是谈论困难的话题（#27）。
The team is able and willing to speak openly, even on difficult subjects (#27).
即使决策违背了他们的观点，团队成员也会觉得自己被倾听了（#15）。
Team members feel heard, even if a decision goes against their view (#15).
通过开放、尊重的沟通可以最大限度地减少政治冲突（#17）。
Politics are minimized by open, respectful communication (#17).
该团队实行开放政策，每个人都可以向高层领导提出关切或提供反馈（#23）。
The team has an open-door policy, and everyone has access to senior leadership to raise concerns/offer feedback (#23).
团队成员清楚对任务和行为的期望（#24）。
Team members are clear on the expectations for tasks and behaviors (#24).
团队定期开会讨论感兴趣的话题、提出问题并找出瓶颈（#33）。
The team meets regularly to discuss topics of interest, ask questions, and identify bottlenecks (#33).
如果团队成员沟通不畅，团队就无法有效运作。从系统角度来说，每个团队成员都是整个团队系统的一部分：如果团队成员之间没有建设性互动，系统就会崩溃。这包括非正式和正式的沟通，包括口头和书面。它还包括一些更困难的领域，比如当事情出错时不隐瞒结果（“无意外管理”），能够建设性地批评彼此的工作（面对这种情况时不做出防御性反应），以及每个团队成员都完全致力于决策，即使他们个人不同意。这并不是说团队成员应该是盲目的无人机，但是一旦做出决定，抛开自己的意见并用行动支持它，就会产生巨大的力量。这意味着全心全意地为团队决定的方向做出贡献，即使你不同意。那些做不到这一点的人（在最坏的情况下，说了正确的话但没有付诸行动）往往就是在事情变得非常困难、深入生产时对团队产生负面影响的人。
A team cannot be effective if its members don’t communicate well. In systems terms, each team member is a part in the overall team system: if the team members don’t interact constructively, the system falls apart. This includes informal and formal communication, both oral and written. It also includes some more difficult areas, like not hiding results when things go wrong (“no surprises management”), being able to criticize each other’s work constructively (without reacting defensively in the face of this), and each team member fully committing to a decision even if they personally don’t agree with it. This isn’t to say that team members should be mindless drones, but there is great power in setting aside your own opinions once a decision has been made and supporting it with your actions. This means contributing wholeheartedly to the direction the group has decided on, even if you disagree. Those who cannot do so (in the worst case, saying the right things but not following that up with their actions) are very often the same ones who become toxic to the team when things become really difficult, deep into production.
上面关于经常开会的观点虽然排在最后，但仍然很重要：团队不仅需要良好沟通，而且需要经常沟通。每天召开每个人都参加的状态会议是最低要求。在大型团队中，这可能会变成职能团队的小型快速会议，然后是团队负责人的快速会议，但原则是一样的。比仅仅每天开会更好的是，团队成员（作为一个整体或以较小的重叠小组）聚在一起讨论游戏、提高技能、解决问题或只是社交。团队中并非每个人都必须是朋友，但他们必须相互尊重，并知道如何有效沟通，以使团队和项目顺利完成。
The point above about meeting often, though low on the list, is nevertheless important: a team needs to communicate not just well but often. Having daily status meetings where everyone attends is a minimum. On large teams, this may turn into small quick meetings of functional teams followed by fast meetings of the team leads, but the principle is the same. Far better than just having daily meetings is when team members (as a whole or in smaller overlapping groups) get together to go over the game, improve their skills, work out problems, or just socialize. Not everyone on the team has to be friends, but they do have to respect each other and know how to communicate effectively for the team, and the project, to do well.
个人
Individuals
沟通和团队合作显然是成功的关键因素。但每个团队都是由个人组成的。作为个人，我们都有不同需求。成功的团队能够平衡整个团队和产品的需求与团队每个成员的有效需求。游戏成果项目发现了以下关于成功团队的情况：
Communication and teamwork are clearly vital aspects of success. But every team is made up of individuals. As individuals, we all have different needs. Successful teams manage to balance the needs of the entire team and product with the valid needs of each member of the team. The Game Outcomes Project found the following about successful teams:
团队让每个人都能成长，甚至能担任新的角色（#28）。
The team allows everyone to grow, even into new roles (#28).
团队成员真心互相关心（#37）。
Team members genuinely care about each other as human beings (#37).
该团队使用个性化定制的财务激励措施，而不是与评论分数或类似物挂钩的版税或奖金（#38）。
The team uses individually tailored financial incentives, not royalties or bonuses tied to review scores or similar (#38).
每个人都有自己独特的旅程。这听起来像陈词滥调，但却是事实，值得牢记。大多数制作团队在一起工作几个月甚至几年，然后各自走上不同的道路。将团队成员视为个体，而不仅仅是他们的职能角色（游戏设计师、首席程序员、艺术实习生等），将有助于您记住，每个人的个人和职业需求都必须与团队的需求保持平衡。
Each person is on a unique journey. It sounds like a cliché, but it’s true and worth keeping in mind. Most production teams spend a few months or maybe a few years together and then go their separate ways on your different paths. Seeing team members as individuals rather than just in terms of their functional role (game designer, lead programmer, art intern, and so on) will help you remember that each individual’s personal and professional needs have to be balanced with those of the team.
当团队成员之间有某种程度的真诚同理心时，团队会更加高效——根据需要一起庆祝、支持和哀悼。这就是建立关系纽带并让团队共同度过困难时期的原因。没有什么比成为一个每个人都相互信任的团队的一员更好的了。这并不意味着他们会纵容彼此的弱点，也不意味着他们不会指出错误或产生分歧，但如果这些困难的任务能够在真正的相互尊重甚至关心的背景下完成，那么团队就能做得更多。
Teams are much more effective when members have some level of genuine empathy for each other—celebrating, supporting, and mourning together, as needed. This is what forges the relationship bonds and allows teams to get through difficult times together. There’s nothing quite like being part of a team where everyone trusts each other. That doesn’t mean they enable each other’s weaknesses or that they don’t point out mistakes or have disagreements, but if these difficult tasks can be done in a context of real mutual esteem, even caring, it enables the team to do much more.
虽然每个人都有自己的需求和目标，而且制作团队通常只在一起很短的时间，但如果你能够平衡团队需求和每个人的需求，你最终会组建一支更强大的团队。此外，这也是你建立联系的方式，让你在未来组建更好的团队。在组建团队时，没有什么比所谓的“十一罗汉”时刻更棒的了：你打电话告诉他们你在组建什么，然后他们回答说“我加入”。
While it’s true that each person has their own needs and goals and that production teams typically are together for only a short time, it’s also true that if you are able to balance the team needs with each individual’s needs, you will end up creating a stronger team. Moreover, this is how you create the connections that allow you to build better teams in the future. When putting together a team, there are few things better than what might be termed an Ocean’s Eleven moment: you call up, tell them what you’re putting together, and the response is “I’m in.”
总结
Summing Up
根据我创建和管理许多团队的经验，我将本章迄今所讨论的原则归结为三个主要原则：
In my experience in starting and running many teams, I have boiled principles like those discussed so far in this chapter down to three main ones:
正直
Integrity
按照你所说的去做。
Do what you say when you say.
当你犯错时，要承认错误。
Admit your mistakes when you make them.
不要指责。
Don’t point fingers.
灵活性
Flexibility
能够快速改变方向。
Be able to change direction quickly.
允许其他人成长。
Allow others to grow.
不要沉湎于过去。
Don’t get stuck in the past.
沟通
Communication
让其他人了解情况；不要囤积信息。
Keep others informed; don’t hoard information.
提供或请求帮助。
Offer and ask for help.
提供及时反馈。
Provide timely feedback.
这些建议来自我的经验。前几节中列出的来自游戏成果项目的项目具有基于定量数据的优势，但我相信这些建议仍然有用。如果你能内化并平衡这三个价值观，它们将帮助你在任何职业和生活中走得更远。
These recommendations are from my experience. The items listed in previous sections, from the Game Outcomes Project, have the benefit of being based on quantitative data, but I believe these my suggestions still useful. If you can internalize and balance these three values, they will see you a long way in any profession—and in life.
团队角色
Team Roles
任何团队都有多个角色需要填补——拥有完全不同技能的人必须齐心协力才能组成一个成功的团队并推出成功的产品。了解这些角色以及每个角色需要具备哪些技能和职责将有助于您找到自己作为团队成员的方式，并了解组成一个完整开发团队需要哪些条件。
On any team there are multiple roles that have to be filled—people with entirely different skills who have to come together to make a successful team and a successful product. Knowing something about these roles and what skills and responsibilities go into each will help you both find your way as a member of a team and understand what goes into making up a full development team.
要开始讨论游戏开发中的团队角色，我们首先要缩小到公司层面。然后我们再回到工作室，最后再到游戏开发团队。并非每家公司都采用这种模式，但这种组织很常见。
To begin a discussion of team roles in game development, we’re going to zoom out first to the level of the company. From there we’ll go back to the studio and then finally down to the game development team. Not every company uses this model, but this kind of organization is common.
公司架构
Company Architecture
大多数游戏公司（以及一般的商业公司）都由一个执行团队领导。其中包括通常所说的 C 团队或 C 套件，其组成如下：
Most game companies (and commercial companies in general) are led by an executive team. This includes what’s often called the C-team or C-suite, which consists of the following:
首席执行官（CEO）： CEO负责公司整体方向、融资以及与董事会合作。
Chief executive officer (CEO): The CEO is responsible for overall company direction, fund-raising, and working with the board of directors.
首席运营官 (COO)/总裁： COO 负责公司的日常运作，并与 CEO 合作。（在较小的公司中，一个人可能同时担任 CEO 和 COO。）
Chief operating officer (COO)/president: The COO is responsible for the day-to-day functioning of the company and works with the CEO. (In smaller companies, a single person may be both the CEO and COO.)
首席财务官（CFO）： CFO负责公司预算、监督员工薪酬、会计、税务等。
Chief financial officer (CFO): The CFO is responsible for company budgets, overseeing employee compensation, accounting, taxes, and so on.
首席创意官 (CCO)： COO 负责公司产品组合的创意以及各工作室的创意指导。
Chief creative officer (CCO): The COO is responsible for the creative mix of the company’s portfolio and creative direction across studios.
首席技术官（CTO）： CTO负责公司的技术平台，审查和采用新技术、编程标准等。
Chief technical officer (CTO): The CTO is responsible for the company’s technology platforms, examining and adopting new technologies, programming standards, and so on.
有时还会有其他职位，包括首席信息官（通常与游戏公司的 CTO 相同）和首席营销官（通常是副总裁 [VP] 或类似职位，向 CEO 汇报）。有许多基础职位 — 人力资源、有时是营销、设施、供应商关系等 — 通常向 COO 或向 COO 汇报的副总裁汇报。
There are sometimes others, too, including a chief information officer (usually the same as the CTO in a game company) and a chief marketing officer (usually a vice president [VP] or similar who reports to the CEO). There are many infrastructural roles—human resources, sometimes marketing, facilities, vendor relations, and so on—that typically report to the COO or to a VP who reports to the COO.
首席执行官通常被认为是“大老板”；他们主要负责确保公司表现良好并实现其总体目标。但首席执行官的老板是董事会。首席执行官定期与董事会开会，讨论战略和公司方向，并在必要时筹集更多投资资金。董事会成员通常不是公司的员工，而是代表那些在公司投资了资金的人的利益（特别是，资金是否得到妥善使用以及投资者最终如何获得数倍的回报）。大多数没有投资者的小公司也没有董事会，尽管他们可能有顾问委员会来帮助他们。大公司没有外部投资者或董事会的情况极为罕见。
The CEO is often considered “the big boss”; they are most responsible for making sure the company performs well and meets its overall objectives. But the CEO’s boss is the board of directors. The CEO meets regularly with the board to discuss strategy and corporate direction and, when necessary, to raise more investment funding. The members of the board are not generally employees of the company but represent the interests of those who have invested money in the company (in particular, whether it is being used well and how, eventually, investors will get some multiple of their money back). Most small companies that have no investors also lack a board of directors, though they may have a board of advisors to help them. It is extremely rare for a large company to have no external investors or board of directors.
工作室角色
Studio Roles
向 CEO 或 COO 汇报的通常是一组副总裁和/或总经理（VP 和 GM——头衔多种多样），他们又领导着被称为工作室的组织。这个术语很常用，但没有一个统一的含义。简单来说，工作室是一组开发类似游戏产品的开发团队。他们的产品通常按类型或特许经营权（具有相同品牌的一系列产品）分组。
Reporting to the CEO or COO are typically a group of vice presidents and/or general managers (VPs and GMs—the titles become highly varied), who in turn lead organizations referred to as studios. That term is commonly used but doesn’t have a single agreed-upon meaning. Loosely, a studio is a group of development teams working on similar sorts of game products. Often their products are grouped by genre or franchise (a series of products with the same underlying brand).
领导工作室的副总裁或总经理负有所谓的损益责任——这意味着他们最终要对其管理团队的利润和亏损、收入和成本负责。这意味着他们在招聘、生产方向和团队组成方面拥有广泛的权力。
The VP or GM leading a studio has what’s called P&L responsibility—meaning that they are ultimately responsible for the profits and losses, the revenues and costs, of the groups under their management. This means they have broad authority over hiring, production direction, and team composition.
向工作室负责人（副总裁或总经理）汇报的是一个或多个执行制作人 (EP)，通常还有一名创意总监 (CD)，有时还有一组共享服务。每个 EP 领导一个开发或产品团队。创意总监负责监督工作室的所有游戏设计，也可能向公司的 CCO 汇报，或者可能有一位 CD 兼任 CCO。
Reporting to the studio head (the VP or GM) are one or more executive producers (EPs), often a creative director (CD), and sometimes a group of shared services. Each EP heads up a single development or product team. The CD oversees all the game design in the studio and may also report to the company’s CCO—or there may be a single CD who is also the CCO.
共享服务包括跨所有产品团队工作的个人和团队。通常包括营销，有时还包括其他团队，如商业智能 (BI) 或分析、质量保证 (QA)、社区管理、艺术，尤其是声音设计，因为与其他职能角色相比，跨团队所需的声音设计师更少。
The shared services include the individuals and teams that work across all the product teams. Often this includes marketing and sometimes other groups, like business intelligence (BI) or analytics, quality assurance (QA), community management, art, and especially sound design, as fewer sound designers are needed across teams than any other functional role.
如果任何一个产品团队有特殊需求，或者需要这些领域的多名人员，那么一些人员可能会从共享资源池转移到单个团队。但一般来说，在这些团队中工作的人与特定项目的联系较少，因此能够更轻松地调动。这意味着公司还必须为这些团队雇佣更少的人员，这样当某个团队不再需要这些人员时，他们才不会变得多余。另一种情况是，公司通过为某个特定角色（比如 QA）雇佣大量人员来“扩充人员”，然后在不再需要这些人时再次解雇他们。不幸的是，即使是共享资源团队，这种情况在某些公司也经常发生。
If any of the product teams has particular needs or requires more than a few people from these areas all the time, some individuals may move from a shared pool into an individual team. But generally people who work on these teams are seen as being less connected to any particular project and are thus able to move around more easily. This means the company also has to hire fewer people on these teams and that they don’t become redundant when no longer needed by a particular team. The alternative is that companies “staff up” by hiring lots of people for a particular role, say QA, and then lay those people off again when they’re no longer needed. Unfortunately, even with shared resource teams, this happens a lot in some companies.
开发团队组织
Development Team Organization
通常，执行制作人会领导和监督一个游戏开发团队。他们的重点是确保制作出正确的游戏，并确保制作正确。虽然严格来说，执行制作人并不是游戏设计人员，但这个人通常对正在开发的游戏拥有最终决定权，因此通常是游戏的“愿景持有者”。执行制作人通常会与团队的首席设计师或创意总监密切合作，但执行制作人是任何问题（无论是创意问题还是其他问题）的最终解决者。
Typically the executive producer leads and oversees a single game development team. Their focus is on making sure the right game gets made and that it’s made correctly. Although the EP role is not, strictly speaking, a game design role, this individual often has the final authority for a game under development and is thus often the “vision holder” of the game. Often the EP will work closely with the team’s lead designer or creative director, but the EP is the ultimate stop for any issue, creative or otherwise.
向 EP 汇报的是一系列职能团队：游戏设计、编程和艺术，以及制作团队和其他团队（见图11.1）。EP 必须平衡这些团队相互竞争的需求和问题，以确保游戏制作精良并且（在后期制作中）运行良好。在某些情况下，EP 将对其团队拥有预算权；这取决于 EP 的资历和团队规模等其他因素。
Reporting to the EP are a series of functional teams: game design, programming, and art, along with the production team and others (see Figure 11.1). The EP has to balance competing needs and issues from these teams to make sure the game is made well and (in postproduction) runs well. In some cases, the EP will have budgetary authority over their team; this depends on the EP’s seniority and the size of the team as much as anything else.
生产者
向执行制片人汇报的是一个或多个制片人，在大型团队中，则有一个或多个助理制片人 (AP)。小型团队可能只有一名制片人。大型团队可能有一名或两名高级制片人，以及向他们汇报的几名制片人（有时称为线路制片人），还有多名 AP 协助并向制片人汇报。一般来说，游戏开发团队中每 10 名成员中就会有 1 名制作人。如果制作人数量更多，这可能表明团队存在问题，或者可能只是“厨师太多”。如果制作人数量少于这个数字，那么要么职能团队的自我管理能力很强，要么团队压力过大时就会出现混乱。
Reporting to the executive producer are one or more producers and, on large teams, one or more associate producers (APs). A small team might have just one producer. A large team might have one or two senior producers with several producers (sometimes called line producers in that case) reporting to them and multiple APs assisting and reporting to the producers. As a general rule, you typically see 1 producer for about every 10 other members of the game development team. If there are more, this might indicate problems on the team, or there just may be “too many cooks in the kitchen.” If you have fewer than that, then either the functional teams are highly self-managing or there is chaos waiting to break lose when the team becomes stressed.
AP 是游戏开发中常见的入门级职位；这些人往往与其他职能团队（游戏设计、编程等）一起处理日常任务和日程安排的细节。随着经验的积累，AP 可能会晋升为制作人，然后升为高级制作人，最终成为执行制作人。（每个步骤都需要数年的经验。）在每个阶段，个人的视野和职责都会变得更广，需要处理的问题也更多。
APs are a common entry-level position in game development; these individuals tend to work on the daily details of tasks and schedules with one of the other functional teams (game design, programming, and so on). As they gain more experience, an AP may be promoted to producer and from there to senior producer and eventually executive producer. (Each of these steps can take several years of experience.) At each stage, the individual’s horizons and responsibilities become broader, with more issues to juggle.
制作人和游戏设计师的职责描述通常很模糊。制作人负责确保进展顺利、问题得到快速解决，以及团队高效工作，不会出现问题或分心。根据组织情况，AP 和制作人负责管理团队的里程碑、任务和时间表，或帮助职能团队管理自己的里程碑、任务和时间表。他们通常不会直接向游戏添加任何内容，但他们负责使其他一切正常运转。作为一个团队，制作人需要始终了解每个职能团队的情况 — — 谁在做什么，尤其是最大的风险点在哪里。有人说，你应该能够在半夜把制作人摇醒，他们应该能够告诉你团队目前面临的三大风险。这可能有点夸张，但也不算太夸张。
Producers along with game designers often have vague job descriptions. Producers are the ones who make sure progress gets made well, issues get solved quickly, and teams work effectively without problems or distractions. Depending on the organization, the APs and producers manage the team’s milestones, tasks, and schedules or help the functional teams manage their own. They don’t typically add anything directly to the game, but they make everything else work. As a team, the producers need to always know what is going on in each functional team—who’s doing what and, especially, where the big risk points are. It has been said that you should be able to shake a producer awake in the middle of the night, and they should be able to tell you the top three risks facing the team at the moment. That might be an exaggeration, but not by much.
制作人的重要技能包括有条理、有决心和毅力，以及成为优秀的领导者。没有一个团队会因为你强迫他们而真正追随你；团队成员只有在他们愿意并且相信你的领导时才会追随你。制作人经常试图让团队成员做某事（或完成某事），团队必须相信他们的领导能力，尤其是在困难时期。作为优秀领导者的一部分，制作人还必须具有坚实的服务心态。制作游戏需要做很多吃力不讨好的工作，从擦洗厕所到订购零食，再到确保每个人都有合适的鼠标和键盘——如果没有其他人来处理这些问题，那么这些问题就落在了制作团队身上。
Important skills for producers include being organized, being determined and persistent, and being a good leader. No team will really follow you because you force them to; team members will following you only if they want to and if they believe in your leadership. The producers are the ones often trying to get team members to do something (or finish something), and the team has to believe in their leadership, especially in hard times. As part of being a good leader, a producer also has to have a solid service mentality. A lot of thankless jobs that go into getting a game made, from scrubbing toilets to ordering snacks to making sure everyone has the right mice and keyboards—and if there is no one else to take care of these issues, they fall on the production team.
最后，制作人必须善于倾听并果断行事。制作人必须能够以个人能够接受的方式拒绝团队中的某个人。有时，当每个人都真的想要某样东西时——一个很酷的新功能、一个下午去看一部新上映的电影或新椅子——制作人的工作就是让每个人都专注于团队的目标，并温和而坚定地让他们所有人工作顺利，即使这意味着要说很多次“不”。
Finally, producers have to be good at listening and at being decisive. A producer has to be able to tell someone on their team no in a way that the individual will accept. Sometimes when everyone really wants something—a cool new feature, an afternoon to go see a newly released movie, or new chairs—it is the producer’s job to keep everyone focused on the team’s goals and gently but firmly keep them all working well, even if that means saying no—a lot.
项目经理和产品经理
在一些游戏公司，制作人之间存在着有趣的划分：一些人被称为项目经理，另一些人被称为产品经理。两者都是制作人的子类别。
In some game companies, there is an interesting split among producers: some are called project managers and others are called product managers. Both are subcategories of producers.
项目经理在游戏发布前会全心投入其中。他们与团队一起制定里程碑和时间表，留意团队可能开始失去前进动力的麻烦点，并确保团队专注于任务并避免分心。他们还确保每个人都能完成自己的工作 — 确保没有人在进度上受到阻碍 — 并且经常与外部团队合作。
Project managers are focused on a game before its release. They work with the team on milestones and schedules, watch for trouble spots where the team may begin to lose some forward motion, and keep the team on task and safe from distractions. They also make sure that everyone is able to do their job—that no one is blocked in their progress—and often work with external teams.
相比之下，产品经理则专注于已发布且正在销售的游戏。他们更负责产品营销、管理社区关系，有时还负责游戏内货币化以及跟踪使用情况分析。并非所有团队都需要现场产品经理，但随着越来越多的游戏具有在线组件，这一角色正变得越来越常见。
By contrast, product managers are focused on a game that has launched and is currently being sold. They are more responsible for product marketing, managing community relations, in some cases working on in-game monetization, and tracking usage analytics. Not all teams need a live product manager, but this is becoming a more familiar role as more games have an online component.
游戏设计师
游戏设计师这个角色可能是你现在最熟悉的角色了。游戏设计师会做本书中讨论的所有事情：构思新概念、创建系统、定义部件，以及几乎无休止地在电子表格中研究属性值。
The game designer role is the one that you may be the most familiar with by now. Game designers do all the things discussed in this book: think up new concepts, create systems, define parts, and almost endlessly pore over attribute values in spreadsheets.
游戏设计师的入门级职位通常是初级或助理游戏设计师（这些职位因公司而异）。新设计师刚入行时，与大多数早期职业职位一样，会在一个小而明确的领域工作。新设计师的典型工作是设计游戏中特定物品和关卡的细节，有时还会平衡它们。
Entry-level titles for game designers tend to be junior or associate game designer (these vary from company to company). When starting out, a new designer will, as with most early-career positions, work in a small and well-defined area. A typical activity for new designers is working on the detail design of specific items and levels in a game and, in some cases, on balancing them against each other.
在积累了几年的经验后，尤其是经历了游戏设计和发布的整个过程后，初级游戏设计师就成为了一名游戏设计师。该角色的重点往往是构建子系统（例如，战斗系统的射箭子系统）、设计特定机制以及为游戏编写有限的叙述或其他文本。大多数游戏设计师在积累经验的过程中会花五年或更长时间从事此类工作。
After getting a few years’ experience, and in particular after having been through the entire process of designing and releasing a game, a junior game designer becomes a game designer. The focus in this role tends to be on building subsystems (for example, the archery subsystem for a combat system), designing specific mechanics, and writing limited narrative or other text for the game. Most game designers spend five years or more doing this kind of work as they accrue experience.
某个时候，游戏设计师（尤其是在大型组织中）可能会晋升为高级游戏设计师或首席游戏设计师。在许多情况下，这些职位基本相同，后者的角色需要管理其他游戏设计师和初级游戏设计师。高级设计师和首席设计师往往是创建整个系统和核心循环、创建长篇叙事弧、进行世界创作以及全面监督游戏设计的高级结构的人。
At some point, a game designer, especially in a large organizations, is likely to advance to becoming a senior game designer or a lead game designer. In many cases, these are essentially the same, with the latter role entailing the management of other game designers and junior game designers. Senior and lead designers tend to be the ones creating entire systems and core loops, creating long narrative arcs, doing world creation, and overall overseeing the high-level structure of the game design.
通常，首席游戏设计师会直接向执行制作人汇报；他们与其他职能团队负责人是同级关系。虽然所有团队负责人必须一起工作，但每个人都有自己特定的专长领域。有时团队中也会有创意总监，作为工作室级别的 CD 的补充或替代。在这种情况下，首席设计师向创意总监汇报，创意总监负责监督最高级别的创意指导，确保整个游戏在游戏玩法方面保持一致，并确保在与游戏玩法相关的最高优先级项目上取得足够的进展。
Often the lead game designer will report directly to the executive producer; they have a peer relationship with the other functional team leaders. While all the team leaders must work together, each has a particular area of concentration. Occasionally there will be a creative director attached to the team as well, either in addition to or instead of a CD at the studio level. In this case, the lead designer reports to the creative director, who oversees the highest level of creative direction, making sure the whole game holds together in terms of its gameplay and that sufficient progress is being made on the highest-priority items related to gameplay.
用户界面/用户体验
负责创建游戏用户界面( UI ) 并定义其用户交互( UX ) 的团队成员处于混合角色。许多 UI 设计师都是从艺术家做起的，因为这一领域最常由玩家眼中的用户界面来定义。但他们还必须了解感知和认知心理学 — 人们如何看到和听到不同的提示，如何有效地点击或滑动，等等。
The team members who create the game’s user interface (UI) and define its user interactions (UX) are in a hybrid position. Many UI designers start off as artists because this area is most often characterized by how the user interface looks to the player. But they also have to understand perceptual and cognitive psychology—how people see and hear different cues, how they click or swipe effectively, and so on.
用户交互设计师通常更关心用户界面的功能架构和玩家的体验路径。他们也可能是艺术家或游戏设计师，或者越来越多地是接受过用户交互方法专门培训的人员。
User interaction designers are often more concerned with the functional architecture of the user interface and the player’s path through it. These may also be artists or game designers or, increasingly, people specifically trained in user interaction methods.
UI/UX 在游戏开发组织中的位置因游戏行业而异。有时它与制作部门归为一类，有时与艺术部门归为一类，有时与游戏设计部门归为一类。图 11.1显示 UI/UX 是游戏设计的兄弟部门，向创意总监汇报，但这只是众多可能配置中的一种。
Where UI/UX sits in a game development organization varies across the games industry. Sometimes it’s grouped with production, other places it’s put it with art, and still other places it’s put it with game design. Figure 11.1 shows UI/UX as being a sibling of game design, reporting to the creative director, but this is only one of many possible configurations.
程序员
游戏开发团队中的技术角色由通常称为程序员的人担任，但有时也更正式地称为软件工程师。这些人通常拥有计算机科学或类似领域的大学学位，并专注于使游戏设计真正发挥作用。一些程序员也从事游戏设计，但这两项活动需要截然不同的技能和思维方式，而且通常很难同时做好。即使你在两方面都有天赋和经验，专注于其中之一对于建立职业生涯是必要的。
Technical roles on a game development team are filled by people generally known as programmers, though sometimes known a bit more formally as software engineers. These are people who typically have a university degree in computer science or a similar field and who are focused on making the game design actually work. Some programmers also do game design, but the two activities require distinctly different skills and ways of thinking, and they are often difficult to do well simultaneously. Focusing on one or the other is necessary in building a career, even if you have talent and experience in both.
与制作人和游戏设计师一样，大多数程序员都是从初级职位开始的，这些职位有许多不同的名称，例如初级程序员或软件工程师 I。随着经验的增加，程序员最终会遇到职业分工，要么成为管理或首席程序员，要么成为知识渊博的架构师。成为首席程序员通常需要管理其他技术人员——许多程序员会尽量避免这一点——但它也让你对整个项目有更高的可见性和指导性。架构师不管理其他程序员，但对游戏的技术构建有重大影响。团队的架构师是决定游戏软件整体结构、确定将要使用的工具、了解开发团队中文件和数据的“管道”或流程、创建重要命名约定等的人。在此过程中，架构师经常与技术总监甚至公司 CTO 合作，以确保具有长期影响的决策在团队间保持一致。
As with producers and game designers, most programmers start out in junior roles that go by many different names, such as junior programmer or software engineer I. As they become more experienced, programmers eventually encounter a career split between becoming more of a managing or lead programmer and being more of a deeply knowledgeable architect. Being a lead programmer generally involves managing other technical people—something many programmers would just as soon avoid—but it also allows you to have more visibility and direction over the entire project. Architects do not manage other programmers but nevertheless have a significant effect on the technical construction of the game. The team’s architect is the one who determines the overall structure of the game’s software, determines tools that will be used, knows the “pipeline” or flow of files and data through the development team, creates important naming conventions, and so on. In doing so, the architect often works with the technical director or even the company CTO to keep decisions that have long-term impact consistent across teams.
与游戏设计师类似，首席程序员或技术总监可以监督项目的所有技术方面，并向执行制片人汇报。如果开发团队有自己的质量保证团队，那么 QA 人员通常会向技术总监汇报，技术总监拥有技术方面的总体管理权和监督权团队成员并与其他职能团队领导合作，推动游戏的持续开发。
Similar to game designers, either the lead programmer or a technical director may oversee all the technical aspects of the project, and they report to the executive producer. If the development team has its own quality assurance team, the QA people typically report to the technical director, who has the overall management authority and oversight for the technical members of the team and works with the other functional team leaders to keep the game’s development moving forward.
随着时间的推移，程序员变得更加有经验，他们倾向于专注于许多领域之一，包括以下领域：
Over time, as programmers become more experienced, they tend to specialize in one of many areas, including the following:
客户端：图形、UI/UX 编程、物理、动画、音频
Client side: Graphics, UI/UX programming, physics, animation, audio
服务器端：游戏系统编程、游戏引擎、脚本、网络
Server side: Game systems programming, game engines, scripting, networking
数据库：广泛适用且技术含量高的高效存储和检索数据的领域
Database: Broadly applicable and highly technical areas of storing and retrieving data efficiently
工具：分析、剖析、测试、自动化
Tools: Analytics, profiling, testing, automation
人工智能：在游戏中创造有效的对手
Artificial intelligence: Creating effective opponents in the game
原型设计：快速、反复地创建可用的原型
Prototyping: Creating fast, usable prototypes quickly, over and over again
有些程序员涉足了大部分甚至所有领域，因此被称为“全栈”程序员。例如，几年前，全栈 LAMP 程序员供不应求。LAMP 代表 Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP，即这些程序员日常使用的工具“堆栈”，从操作系统到产品开发语言。
Some programmers span most or even all of these areas and are referred to as “full-stack” programmers. For example, several years ago, full-stack LAMP programmers were in high demand. LAMP stands for Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP—the “stack” of tools from operating system to product development language that these programmers worked with daily.
虽然开发团队的所有成员都会使用各种工具来完成工作，但程序员可能是使用最多的。他们必须熟悉集成开发环境 (IDE)、源代码或版本控制系统、问题和任务跟踪系统、图形引擎、数据库工具、代码分析器、解析器等等。此外，如上文的 LAMP 示例所示，任何给定工具集的寿命往往不超过几年。程序员必须致力于不断学习新语言、新工具以及新方法或更新方法，以在职业生涯中保持最新和高效。
While all members of a development team uses a variety of tools to do their work, programmers probably use the most. They must be familiar with integrated development environments (IDEs), source or version control systems, issue and task tracking systems, graphics engines, database tools, code profilers, parsers, and many more. Moreover, as the LAMP example above shows, the life span of any given tool set tends not to be more than a few years long. Programmers must be dedicated to continually learning new languages, tools, and new or updated methods to stay current and effective in their careers.
一个项目的程序员数量差异很大。在早期的概念和原型设计阶段，可能只有一两名程序员。另一方面，一个处于全面开发阶段的大型项目可能拥有一名技术总监、一名架构师、一名首席程序员，以及上述专业领域的多名程序员。客户端程序员往往是团队中人数最多的，而 AI 和工具程序员人数最少。
The number of programmers on a project varies widely. Early on, in the concept and prototyping phase, there may be only one or two programmers. On the other end of the scale, a large project in full development may have a technical director, an architect, a lead programmer, and several programmers each for the specialization areas listed above. Client-side programmers tend to be the most numerous on a team, and AI and tools programmers being the least numerous.
质量保证
如本章前面所述，质量保证 (QA) 可以是整个工作室（甚至是整个公司）的共享资源，根据需要从一个项目转移到另一个项目，也可以由开发团队负责。如果 QA 在团队中，QA 负责人通常会向技术总监汇报，但在某些情况下，此人与其他职能团队负责人是同级，并直接向执行制片人汇报。
As mentioned earlier in this chapter, quality assurance (QA) can either be a shared resource across the studio (or even the company), moving from project to project as needed, or may reside within the development team. If QA is on the team, the QA lead typically reports to the technical director, though in some cases this individual is a peer with the other functional team leaders and report directly to the executive producer.
对于那些后来成为游戏设计师、制作人甚至程序员的人来说，QA 是进入游戏行业职业的常见切入点。这个团队的重点是确保游戏按预期运行，并让玩家满意。QA 团队根据他们的工作重点，成员有时被称为QA 测试员或QA 工程师。前者花更多时间测试游戏玩法，后者则致力于编写自动化测试以确保游戏按预期运行。虽然 QA 测试员确实会发现软件中的错误，但这几乎与他们的目的无关：他们的目标是确保游戏创造预期的体验，并且该体验有趣且平衡。
QA is a common entry point for careers in the games industry for those who go on to become game designers, producers, and even programmers. The focus of this group is to make sure the game functions as expected and in a way that will be satisfying to the players. QA team members are sometimes called QA testers or QA engineers, depending on their focus. The former spend more time testing gameplay, and the latter work on programming automated tests to make sure the game is working as desired. While QA testers do find bugs in the software, this is almost incidental to their purpose: their goal is to make sure the game creates the intended experience and that that experience is fun and balanced.
要想从事 QA 工作，你必须精通技术和注重细节，一丝不苟，耐心十足。你经常需要反复测试同一个游戏玩法，寻找问题，并在问题出现时清晰地记录下来。因此，你必须能够很好地进行沟通，无论是非正式的还是正式的，口头的还是书面的。这需要一定的外交技巧：你必须能够以一种让设计师或程序员能够理解且不容易忽视的方式告诉他们游戏无法正常运行的原因。
To work in QA, you must be technically and detail minded, thorough, and patient. You will often have to test the same piece of gameplay over and over again, looking for problems and documenting them clearly when they occur. You must therefore be able to communicate well, both informally and formally, orally or in writing. This requires a certain amount of diplomacy: you have to be able to tell a designer or programmer why the game doesn’t work in a way that will be understood and not easily dismissed.
艺术与声音
视觉和音频艺术家为游戏增添了动感和活力，使游戏比原本更加引人入胜。正是他们的作品激发了玩家的想象力。
Visual and audio artists add movement and life to games and make them far more engaging than they would otherwise be. It is their work as much as any other that spurs the player’s imagination.
视觉艺术家往往拥有工作室艺术或类似领域的学位；现在有些人进入游戏行业，拥有游戏制作或游戏艺术方面的各种学位。艺术家通常会涉足许多专门的游戏艺术形式，例如概念艺术、2D 绘画艺术、3D 建模、动画、特效、技术艺术和用户界面艺术。与编程一样，每种艺术所需的技能现在都非常重要，以至于很难找到一个同时涉足其中两个或三个以上领域的艺术家，许多艺术家在职业生涯中只专注于一个领域。
Visual artists tend to have degrees in studio art or similar fields; some now enter the games industry with various degrees in making games or game art. There are many specialized forms of game art that artists typically move into, such as concept art, 2D drawn art, 3D modeling, animation, special effects, technical art, and user interface art. As with programming, the skills needed for each kind of art are now so significant that it’s rare to find someone who spans more than two or three of these areas, and many artists focus on just one as they move through their career.
视觉艺术团队的结构与编程团队的结构相似：通常有一个首席艺术家管理多位艺术家，还有一位艺术总监（与创意总监和技术总监同级），有时还有一位高级艺术家，其工作方式类似于技术架构师，负责监督游戏艺术的风格和方向，而不直接管理个别艺术家。
The structure of the visual art team is similar to that of the programming team: there is often a lead artist who manages multiple artists, along with an art director (a peer to the creative director and technical director), and sometimes a senior artist who operates like the technical architect, overseeing the style and direction of the art made for the game without directly managing individual artists.
在许多团队中，艺术家的数量与程序员一样多，甚至更多。通常一个团队只有一两位概念、技术和特效艺术家，其余人则专注于建模、动画和其他任务，例如为模型创建纹理并对其进行装配（创建内部“骨骼”）以便可以进行动画制作。制作人通常会将部分艺术作品外包给仅为其他公司游戏制作艺术作品的外部团队，以减少内部团队必须制作的艺术作品数量。
On many teams, there are as many artists as programmers—or even more. Typically a team will have only one or two concept, technical, and special effects artists, while the rest focus on modeling, animation, and other tasks, like creating textures for models and rigging them (creating internal “bones”) so that they can be animated. It is also common for a producer to reduce the amount of art that has to be made by the internal team by outsourcing some of it to external groups that only produce art for other companies’ games.
对于一款成功的游戏来说，声音设计的重要性丝毫不逊于视觉艺术。然而，工作室中的声音设计师往往比视觉艺术家少得多——每个声音设计师通常同时与多个团队合作。这在一定程度上是由于游戏声音的性质，它对整体制作的要求比视觉艺术的逐分钟制作要求低，也因为一些学位课程之所以无法获得学位，部分原因是游戏开发者传统上没有像他们可能的那样重视声音和音乐。这种情况正在改变，越来越多的玩家开始关注出色的声音和音乐，越来越多的游戏将他们的音乐作为独立的配乐发布。开发人员越来越了解精心设计的声音对他们的游戏产生的积极影响，并投入了更多的时间和精力。为游戏制作声音和音乐既需要很高的技术性，也需要很高的创造性，需要很好地结合两种技能。
Sound design is no less necessary for a successful game than visual art. However, there tend to be far fewer sound designers in a studio than visual artists—each sound designer often working with several teams at the same time. This is due in part to the nature of sound for games, which requires less overall production than visual art on a minute-by-minute basis, and to some degree in part because game developers have traditionally not paid as much attention to sound and music as they might have. This is changing, and more players are paying attention to excellent sound and music and more games are releasing their music as freestanding soundtracks. Developers are increasingly understanding the positive effect that well-designed sound can have in their games and are devoting more time and attention to it. Generating sound and music for games is both highly technical and creative, requiring a good mix of both sets of skills.
其他球队
除了这些职能团队之外，通常还有其他团队作为共享资源或开发团队的一部分工作。这些团队包括社区管理、与游戏玩家社区合作以及分析和商业智能，筛选有关玩家行为和竞争格局的定量信息以改善未来发展。如前所述，这些团队往往不是开发团队本身的一部分，而是你可能不时与之合作的紧密联盟团体。
In addition to these functional teams, there are often other teams working either as shared resources or as parts of the development team. These include community management, working with the game’s player community, and analytics and business intelligence, winnowing the quantitative information about player behavior and the competitive landscape to improve future development. As mentioned earlier, these tend not to be part of the development team itself but closely allied groups with which you may find yourself working from time to time.
您需要谁以及何时需要？
Who Do You Need and When?
如果您正在组建一个新团队来开发游戏，您可能希望尽快将团队扩大到尽可能大。这只会导致团队感到沮丧，因为一开始您真的没有足够的工作给几个人。许多最好的团队都是从一个小型核心探索团队开始的，该团队由资深人员组成，他们可以快速行动并尝试新想法，直到他们确定游戏的方向、核心循环和整体游戏玩法。通常，您只需要一名设计师、程序员和艺术家即可开始工作。三个人可以非常紧密地合作，快速尝试新想法 - 设计、原型设计、测试，并根据需要改进或放弃想法。由于该过程必然是迭代的，因此您需要确保这个小团队中的每个人都愿意并能够以这种方式工作 - 产生大量工作然后将其丢弃（即使是与游戏不相符的好工作）。
If you are building a new team to work on a game, you may have the desire to quickly make the team as large as you can. This will only lead to frustration on the team’s part, as you really don’t have enough work for more than a few people at the beginning. Many of the best teams start with a small core exploratory team composed of senior people who can move quickly and try out new ideas until they’re sure of the game’s direction, its core loop, and overall gameplay. A single designer, programmer, and artist is often all you need to get started. Three people can work very closely together, trying out new ideas fast—designing, prototyping, testing, and refining or throwing away ideas as needed. Because the process is necessarily iterative, you need to make sure that everyone on this small team is willing and able to work this way—with a lot of work generated and then tossed out (even good work that just doesn’t fit the game).
除了快速迭代之外，该模型的另一个好处是避免了设计团队交付瓶颈。认为作为游戏设计师（或最终成为设计师团队的一员），您可以设计整个游戏，然后无需迭代或修改即可实现，这是一种谬论。设计师在完善概念、寻找乐趣、创建系统、定义部分以及确保游戏正常运行方面有很多工作要做。在更多人加入团队之前，您越早做这些事情，您和您的游戏就会越好。如果您必须在以后做出重大的游戏设计方向决定，而当时有几位程序员、艺术家、制作人和其他人都在等着看事情的发展方向，以便他们能够开展工作，那么您将浪费他们很多时间，并且可能在压力下创建一个次优设计。
In addition to fast iteration, another benefit of this model is avoiding a bottleneck with deliverables from the design team. It’s a fallacy to think that as the game designer (or eventually one of a team of designers), you can design the whole game and then just have it be implemented without iteration or revision. There is a lot of work for designers to do in refining the concept, finding the fun, creating the systems, defining the parts, and making sure the game works as a game. The more of this you can do early on, before more people join the team, the better off you and your game will be. If you have to make big game design direction decisions later, when there are several programmers, artists, producers and others all waiting to see what direction things go so they can do their work, you’re going to waste a lot of their time—and probably create a suboptimal design under pressure.
团队作为一个系统
The Team as a System
任何团队都是一个复杂的系统：它由各个部分组成，这些部分相互作用，创造出比各个部分本身更大的东西。在公司内部，团队像在任何系统中一样按层级运作：开发团队、工作室和整个公司各自形成系统处于不同的组织层级。对于刚进入游戏或任何复杂行业的人来说，这一点通常很难一开始就看清楚。人们很容易陷入只从一个角度看待整个事物，而不是理解整个系统包含许多部分，因此也包含许多观点。
Any team works as a complex system: it has individual parts that interact with each other to create something larger than the parts themselves. Within a company, teams operate hierarchically, as they do in any system: the development teams, studios, and overall company each form systems at different levels of organization. This is something that is often difficult for those starting out in games, or any complex industry, to see at first. It is easy to fall into seeing the whole thing from just one point of view instead of understanding that there are many parts and, as a result, many points of view within the overall system.
很多年前，当我试图向一位年轻的开发者解释为什么他所负责的部分不是整个流程中唯一（甚至不是最重要的）的部分，当然也不代表全部时，我想找到一种方法让他理解游戏制作的各个层次——系统层次。我写了以下内容（后来在网上很多地方引用）：
Many years ago, when trying to explain to a young developer why his part of the process wasn’t the only (or even the most important) part, and certainly didn’t represent the whole, I wanted to come up with a way for him to understand the layers—the systemic hierarchy—that goes into making a game. I wrote the following (which has since been quoted in many places online):
创意并非设计
An idea is not a design
设计不是原型
A design is not a prototype
原型不是程序
A prototype is not a program
程序不是产品
A program is not a product
产品不是生意
A product is not a business
生意不是为了盈利
A business is not profits
利润不是出路
Profits are not an exit
退出并不代表幸福
And an exit is not happiness
这里要强调的是，制作每款游戏、产品和业务都需要很多不同领域的技能。每个级别都有全新的不同才能，需要发挥这些才能才能取得成功。这个等级制度中的每个部分都需要良好运作，没有哪个部分可以比其他部分更突出（也许除了幸福感）。
The point here is to emphasize that many different areas of skill go into making every game, product, and business. At each level there are entirely new and different talents that need to be brought to bear to be successful. Every part in this hierarchical system needs to work well, and no part can assert itself over the others as being preeminent (except, perhaps, for happiness).
概括
Summary
作为一名游戏设计师，加入一支高效的团队对于成功至关重要。当你开始积极开发时，你必须知道如何与一支拥有各种技能的团队合作，这将使你远远超出游戏设计的范围。你还需要知道一个成功的团队是什么样的，这样你才能更有效地做出贡献。通过了解各种职能、工作室和公司角色如何协同工作以创建一个团队的等级制度，你可以更好地发挥自己的作用，从而让你所在的所有团队受益。
Working as part of an effective team is vital to your success as a game designer. As you begin active development, you have to know how to work as part of a team of people with diverse skills that will take you far outside game design. You also need to know what a successful team looks like so you can contribute more effectively. By understanding how the various functional, studio, and corporate roles fit together to create a hierarchical system of teams, you can better work in your role to the benefit of all the teams of which you are a part.
第十二章
CHAPTER 12
让你的游戏更加真实
MAKING YOUR GAME REAL
除了设计游戏之外，创建游戏还需要做很多工作。本章讨论了您和您的团队在创建游戏的过程中，如何开始和开发游戏的现实方面。
A lot of work goes into creating a game beyond designing it. This chapter discusses the real-world aspects of getting a game started and developed as you and your team bring it to life.
这些实用元素建立在本书第一部分所创建的基础和第二部分所讨论的原则之上，为它们添加了切实的背景。
These practical elements build on the foundation created in the first section of the book and the principles discussed in the second section, adding tangible context to them both.
入门
Getting Started
制作游戏是一个漫长、艰难且复杂的过程。在本书的大部分内容中，我们一直在讨论如何设计游戏。但要让你的游戏成为现实，除了设计之外，你还必须了解如何成功开发游戏。这就是本章的目的。
Making a game is a long, difficult, and complex process. Throughout most of this book, we have talked about how to design a game. But to make your game real, in addition to design, you have to know something about how to successfully develop a game. That’s the purpose of this chapter.
除了能够作为团队的一员工作并真正创建游戏之外，您还需要了解其中涉及的流程：
In addition to being able to work as part of a team, to actually create your game, you need to know about the processes involved in doing so:
传达你的游戏想法
Communicating your idea for a game
以迭代方式设计游戏原型并进行游戏测试
Iteratively prototyping and playtesting your game
了解游戏开发过程的不同阶段
Navigating the different phases of the game development process
不仅开始游戏而且真正完成游戏
Not just starting but actually finishing your game
进行推介
Making the Pitch
除了默默地埋头苦干游戏设计之外，首要任务之一就是向他人介绍你的游戏设计，并努力让他们相信它。如果你无法传达你的想法，你就无法让游戏真正发挥作用。这就是推销游戏的意义所在。
One of the first tasks that moves beyond quietly toiling on your game design is telling others about it—and trying to get them to believe in it. If you can’t communicate your idea, you can’t make the game actually work. This is where pitching your game comes in.
推销游戏是什么意思？推销是一个行业术语，简单来说就是向别人介绍你的游戏，目的是说服你的受众并传达你对游戏的兴奋之情。推销游戏是你传达愿景的方式。在这个过程的早期，你可能有一些图表和文档，或者只是一个你认为可以成为伟大事物的想法。但你不可能独自将游戏变成现实。不可避免地，你必须说服别人为什么你的想法很有价值——为什么在所有其他事情吸引他们的情况下，他们应该给你时间、注意力、金钱和/或才能来帮助你让你的游戏成为现实。
What does it mean to pitch a game? Pitch is an industry term that simply means to tell others about your game, with the purpose of persuading your audience and passing along your excitement about it. Pitching a game is how you communicate your vision. Early on in your process, you may have a few diagrams and documents, or maybe just an idea that you think could become something great. But you’re not going to be able to make the game real on your own. Inevitably, you have to convince others of why your idea is valuable—why, with everything else that’s pulling at them, they should give you their time, attention, money, and/or talents to help you make your game real.
准备推销
Preparing to Pitch
推销发生在各种各样的情况下。如何进行推销很大程度上取决于你的目标、你的受众以及推销的背景。
Pitching happens in a wide variety of contexts. How you go about making your pitch depends a lot on your goals, your audience, and the context in which the pitch happens.
了解你的目标
在准备和进行推介时，你需要明确的第一件事就是你想要达到什么目的。所有的推介都是有意说服的——但说服可以以不同的方式进行，针对不同的目标。最常见的推介原因可能是获得资金，以便你可以开发你的游戏，无论你是向外部投资者还是公司管理层推介。还有其他推介的原因，包括验证你的概念、与媒体合作作为营销游戏的一部分，以及组建你的团队。每一种推介都需要从不同角度看待关于你的游戏的相同想法，才能有效。
The first thing you need to be clear about in preparing and making a pitch is what you are trying to achieve. All pitching is intentionally persuasive—but the persuasion can happen in different ways and with different targets. The most common reason for pitching is probably to obtain funding so you can develop your game, whether you are pitching to external investors or to your company’s management. There are other reasons to pitch, too, including validating your concept, working with the media as part of marketing your game, and building your team. Each requires different angles on the same ideas about your game to be effective.
无论你提出创意的理由是什么，你的创意概念都是一样的，但创意形式可能会改变。如果你想验证你的想法，你可以专注于创意概念本身，并让其他人与你一起探索。通常，你只需谈论它，就能发现游戏愿景中你以前从未见过的新方向或隐藏方面。或者，与你交谈的人会问一个问题，让游戏世界或游戏叙事发生转折，这表明他们足够了解你所描述的内容，知道这种变化是如何发生的。
Your concept remains the same no matter the reasons for your pitch, but the form of the pitch itself may change. If you are trying to validate your idea, you can focus on the concept itself and have others explore it with you. Often you will find new directions or hidden aspects of the game vision that you hadn’t seen before just by talking about it. Or those you talk with will ask a question that sets up a twist in the game world or its narrative, indicating that they understand what you’re describing well enough to see how that change might happen.
与媒体合作讲述你的故事和招募新团队成员是相似的：你想推销游戏的幻想。你希望与你交谈的人能够想象游戏，而不仅仅是它的实际外观，而是最终玩家的感觉和体验。你希望媒体人士看到你的游戏有多么新颖，以及他们的读者或观众想要听到的东西。在招募时，你希望说服潜在的团队成员签约，认为这个项目是他们时间和才华的最佳利用。
Working with the media to get your story told and trying to recruit new team members are similar: you want to sell the fantasy of the game. You want those with whom you are talking to be able to envision the game not even as it will actually look but in terms of how it will feel and be experienced by your eventual players. You want someone from the media to see how your game is new and fresh and something that their readers or viewers will want to hear about. And when recruiting, you want a potential team member to be persuaded to sign on, to see this project as the best use of their time and talents.
如果你正在为筹资而努力，那么你需要提供足够的概念，让受众理解并对这个想法感到兴奋。你还需要向他们提供足够的背景和关于如何制作游戏的想法，让他们不认为这是一个有风险的项目。当然，你需要准备好可信的团队规模、时间表和预算数字，以便他们能够专注于资金问题。许多刚开始做宣传的人在游戏概念的细节上花费了太多时间，而这实际上并不是重点；或者他们过多地详细介绍了开发团队的确切组成以及资金将如何使用。在需要时提供细节很重要，但在资金宣传中，过多和过少一样糟糕。你需要向受众提供足够的信息，让他们看到游戏的吸引力，知道你知道如何制作游戏，并相信你的时间表和预算数字是合理可行的。过多的信息只会拖累对话并增加混淆的可能性。
If you are pitching for funding, you want to provide enough of the concept that your audience understands and is excited by the idea. You also need to give them enough of your background and thinking about how to make the game that they don’t see it as a risky project. And, of course, you need to be prepared with believable team size, schedule, and budgetary figures so that they can focus on the funding question. Many who are new to pitching spend too much time on the details of the game concept, which really isn’t the point in this context; or they throw in too much detail on the exact composition of the development team and how the funding will be spent. It’s important to be able to supply detail as it’s needed, but too much can be as bad as too little in a funding pitch. You want to provide your audience with enough information that they see the appeal of the game, know that you understand how to make it, and believe that your figures for schedule and budget are plausible and viable. More than that just weighs down the conversation and adds the potential for confusion.
不管你对你的宣传有什么其他目标，每次与别人谈论你的游戏都是一个完善和验证你概念的机会。人们会提出批评、问题，如果你幸运的话，他们还会对你所描述的内容产生越来越浓厚的兴趣和兴奋。如果你不小心，很容易错过最后一部分：当别人对你的愿景感到兴奋时，他们通常会说“哦，这听起来像Defense Grid和Triple Town 的结合”，或者他们可能会开始提出自己的想法。这些可能听起来像是批评或分散了你对游戏发展的注意力，但重要的是你不要拒绝或忽略这些评论；至少，它们表明与你交谈的人正在形成游戏的心理图景，而且这个想法足够好，以至于他们开始将其与其他想法联系起来。如果你忽略这样的意见，你就有可能成为孤独的梦想家，不会听取任何人的意见，因此几乎一事无成；这是一个令人悲伤的刻板印象，是有原因的。这并不意味着你应该改变你的想法来适应别人提出的每一个新评论，但你确实需要根据你的描述，利用他们的意见来了解他们如何看待你的游戏，了解你的概念和宣传需要改进的地方，或者甚至是别人有更好的想法的地方。
No matter what other goals you have for your pitch, every time to you talk with someone else about your game is an opportunity to refine and validate your concept. People will offer criticism, questions, and—if you’re lucky—their growing interest and excitement about what you’re describing. It’s easy to miss this last part if you’re not careful: when others become excited by your vision, they will often say things like, “Oh, it sounds like Defense Grid crossed with Triple Town,” or they may begin to suggest their own ideas. These may sound like criticisms or distractions from where you want your game to go, but it’s vital that you not shut down or ignore these comments; if nothing else, they indicate that the person you are talking with is forming a mental picture of the game, and the idea hangs together well enough for them to begin to associate it with other ideas. If you ignore such input, you risk becoming the lonely visionary who won’t listen to anyone else and thus gets little done; this is a sad stereotype for a reason. It doesn’t mean you should change your idea to fit every new comment that others make, but you do need to use their input to see how they see your game, based on your description, where your concept and pitch need improvement, or even where someone else simply has a better idea.
了解你的受众
要想成功地与你的受众互动，你当然必须了解他们。这通常意味着在推销之前要做一些研究。如果你正在与潜在的投资者或出版商交谈，那么这个人还投资了什么或这家公司还生产什么？某个媒体渠道（无论是个人流媒体还是主要出版物）通常报道什么？你的受众在寻找什么？
To engage successfully with your audience, you of course have to understand them. This often means doing some research prior to making a pitch. If you’re talking to a potential investor or publisher, what else does that person invest in or that company make? What does a particular media outlet (whether it’s an individual streamer or a major publication) typically cover? What is your audience looking for?
从受众的角度看待你的宣传将帮助你完善你的信息，并增加实现你为宣传设定的目标的可能性。投资者通常正在寻找市场机会。游戏发行商通常正在寻找一款能够填补其投资组合空白的游戏。投资者和发行商都必须将每一次宣传视为长期合作关系的潜在开端（你也应该这样做），并考虑投资的机会成本。这意味着，例如，如果你要求 100 万美元来完成你的游戏，投资者需要问自己为什么你的游戏是投入这笔钱的最佳去处，以及一旦他们把这些资金交给你，他们还不能做什么。
Seeing your pitch from your audience’s perspective will help you hone your message and increase the probability of achieving the goals you have set out for the pitch. Investors are typically looking for a market opportunity. Game publishers are often looking for a game that fills a hole in their portfolio. Both investors and publishers have to look at every pitch as the potential beginning of a long-term relationship (you should, too) and in terms of the opportunity cost of investment. This means that, for example, that if you are asking for $1 million to complete your game, the investors need to ask themselves why your game is the best place to put that money and what else they won’t be able to do once they commit those funds to you.
媒体代表总是在寻找下一个重大新闻，以便能够以一种通俗易懂的方式在（总是很紧迫的）截止日期之前发布。他们需要发布读者或观众会欣赏并理想地传给他人的故事。他们对观众感兴趣的事情感兴趣，所以在接触媒体代表或与他们进行宣传之前，你应该知道这一点。
Media representatives are always looking for the next big story that they can deliver in an accessible way and within their (always tight) deadlines. They need to deliver stories that their readers or viewers will appreciate and ideally pass along to others. They are interested in what their audience is interested in, so you should know that before approaching media representatives or doing pitches with them.
最后，如果你正在尝试招募团队成员，他们可能还有其他事情要做。（如果没有，你真的希望你的项目成为他们的救生艇吗？）你需要帮助他们了解为什么你的游戏非常适合他们的才能并且值得他们花时间。
Finally, if you’re trying to recruit team members, they probably have other things they could be working on. (If they don’t, do you really want your project to be their lifeboat?) You need to help them see why your game is ideal for their talents and worth their time.
游戏开发者经常会忽略这些要点，他们过于专注于从自己的角度看待游戏，而不是从受众的角度看待游戏。在推销时，除了考虑受众能为你提供什么之外，你还需要考虑受众的目标和顾虑。
Game developers often miss these points, being too focused on seeing their game from their own vantage point rather than their audience’s point of view. When pitching, you need to consider your audience’s goals and concerns, in addition to what they can offer you.
了解你的材料
了解你的游戏和你的受众只是成功推销的一部分。你还需要能够就竞争游戏、市场趋势、技术平台以及你的提案的任何其他潜在风险进行深入的讨论。
Knowing your game and your audience are only part of what you need to make a successful pitch. You also need to be able to speak knowledgably about competing games, market trends, technology platforms, and any other potential risks to your proposal.
你不仅要了解这些事情，还必须能够轻松、权威地讨论它们，不能磕磕巴巴、显得紧张、思路混乱，或者更糟的是，试图表现得比实际上更有知识，然后当场编造一些你以后可能会后悔的事情。
More than just knowing these things, you have to be able to discuss them easily and authoritatively, without stumbling over your words, appearing nervous, losing your train of thought, or, worse, trying to appear more knowledgeable than you are and making something up on the spot that you may later regret.
所有这些都表明，练习你的推销技巧是必要的。练习是无可替代的，而且练习所需的时间也很难避免。即使是那些已经做过很多次推销的人也会一遍又一遍地练习。对于作为推销会议一部分的正式演讲尤其如此，但对于非正式的偶然推销也是如此。你需要当机会出现时，你就已经做好准备，并且当那一刻到来时，你不能停下来练习，甚至不能集中注意力。
All of this points to the need for practicing your pitch. There is no substitute for practice, and there is no easy way around the time it takes. Even those who have pitched many times before continue to practice over and over. This is especially true of formal presentations to be given as part of a pitch meeting, but it’s also true of informal happenstance pitches. You need to be ready when the opportunity arises, and you cannot stop to practice or often even gather your thoughts when the moment comes.
了解材料的另一个方面是，在推销你的游戏时，你需要表现出（并且做到！）真诚、兴奋、热情、专业，同时还要保持随和。做好准备并多次练习推销会有所帮助。你不想排练太多以至于显得呆板和不真诚，但你应该练习到可以消除自己的紧张情绪、摆脱自己的方式并让你对项目的自然热情闪耀出来。
Another aspect of knowing your material is that you need to appear (and be!) sincere, excited, passionate, professional, and still somehow easygoing, all at the same time, while pitching your game. Being prepared and practicing your pitch many times will help with this. You don’t want to rehearse so much that you appear wooden and insincere, but you should practice to the point where you diminish your own nervousness and get out of your own way and let your natural passion for the project shine through.
作为练习的一部分，不要只关注材料本身。你需要学会控制自己的肢体语言，让自己显得轻松自在。不要坐立不安，学会避免重复性的减压行为（扭动双手、将眼镜推到鼻子上、扭动头发等）。看着听众的眼睛，微笑——不要太过分，以免显得咄咄逼人，但要足以确保他们听懂你在说什么。这可能是一条微妙的界线；与他人一起练习会有所帮助。一个有用的想法是仔细观察那些你正在向其推销的人，这样当你走出会议时，你就知道他们眼睛的颜色。令人惊讶的是，大多数人往往不会那么注意周围的人。
As part of practicing, don’t just focus on the material itself. You need to learn to control your body language so that you appear at ease and in control. Don’t fidget and learn to avoid repetitive stress-relief behaviors (wringing your hands, pushing your glasses up your nose, twisting your hair, and so on). Look your audience in the eye and smile—not so much that you appear to be aggressive but enough so that you can make sure they are tracking what you’re saying. This can be a fine line; practicing with others will help. One helpful idea is to look at those to whom you’re pitching closely enough that when you walk out of the meeting, you know their eye color. It’s surprising how often most people don’t pay even that much attention to those around them.
这凸显了一点，在任何演讲中，一定程度的个人融洽关系甚至魅力也有助于你与听众建立联系。如果你过于担心接下来要说什么，或者紧张不安，盯着房间的空角落，那么你就无法专注于你的听众以及如何最好地与他们沟通。这将严重限制他们真正听到和从你那里学到的东西。
This highlights the point that in any pitch, there is also a certain amount of personal rapport and even charm that helps you build a connection with your audience. If you are too concerned about what to say next or are nervously fidgeting and staring into an empty corner of the room, then you cannot focus on your audience and how best to communicate with them. That will severely limit the amount that they actually hear and learn from you.
你的推介的背景
Contexts for Your Pitch
推介几乎可以在任何地方进行。有两种极端情况，您可以轻松做好准备。第一种是非正式的偶然推介，通常称为电梯推介。第二种是在推介会议上进行的更正式的演示。
Pitches can happen almost anywhere. There are two extremes to this that you can easily prepare for. The first is the informal happenstance pitch, often called an elevator pitch. The second is the more formal presentation that happens in a pitch meeting.
电梯演讲
电梯游说不仅仅是一个比喻——有时电梯游说确实会发生。你可能在参加一个会议，发现自己和你很想交谈的出版商副总裁一起乘坐电梯。在这种情况下，副总裁就像一个被迫的听众——尽管你需要小心不要这样对待他们。如果你能开始谈话，那么“你在做什么？”这个问题很可能会提出来。你如何回答是电梯游说的精髓。
Elevator pitches are more than just a metaphor—they really do happen in elevators sometimes. You might be at a conference and find yourself riding in an elevator with the vice president of a publisher you’d love to talk with. In that context, the VP is something of a captive audience—though you need to be careful not to treat them that way. If you can strike up a conversation, the question of “what are you working on?” is likely to come up. How you answer is the essence of your elevator pitch.
当然，这些推销不仅仅发生在电梯里。你可能会在大楼大厅、等待登机时，甚至在杂货店排队时，偶然遇到推销机会。在每种情况下，你都需要做好准备：随时准备推销。
Of course, though, these pitches don’t just happen in elevators. You could find yourself in the lobby of a building, waiting to board an airplane, or even in line at the grocery store, when a chance meeting can occur. In each case, you want to be ready: always be ready to pitch.
在电梯等非正式场合，目的不是解释你所做的一切——你不会突然开始一个完整的演讲——而是简要说明你是谁、你在做什么以及你在寻找什么。这必须以一种激起对方兴趣的方式进行，而不是显得咄咄逼人或有求于对方。“嗨，我是<公司>的<姓名>。我正在做<一句话描述>，对<目标>很感兴趣。”这是你能做到的尽可能丰富的信息，而不会显得咄咄逼人。在评估了对方的兴趣程度后，如果他们不感兴趣，你可以简单地转到另一个话题；至少，你还有一次机会练习你的电梯游说（另外，你永远不知道他们会向谁提到这个）。如果你正在交谈的人看起来有点感兴趣，但时间很短，你可以这样说：“来，让我给你我的名片；我很乐意稍后再和你谈谈这件事。”或者如果他们表现出积极的兴趣，你可以说，“这是我的名片。我们下周约个时间更详细地讨论一下这个问题吧。”
In an informal context like an elevator, the goal is not to explain everything about what you do—you’re not going to pop open a full presentation—but instead to briefly state who you are, what you’re working on, and what you’re looking for. This has to be done in a way that piques the other’s interest rather than coming off as aggressive or needy. “Hi, I’m <name> with <company>. I’m working on <one-sentence description> and interested in <goal>.” That’s about as information packed as you can make it without seeming socially aggressive. After assessing the other person’s level of interest, you might simply move on to another topic if they’re not interested; at minimum, you’ve had one more chance to practice your elevator pitch (plus, you never know who they might mention this to). If the person with whom you’re talking appears somewhat interested but time is short, you could say something like, “Here, let me give you my card; I’d love to talk with you more about this later.” Or if they appear actively intrigued, you might say, “Here’s my card. Let’s set up a time next week to talk about this in more detail.”
就是这样——这是完整的推销。除非对方明确要求，否则不要向对方透露更多有关你正在做的事情的细节。通常情况下，过多的细节会让人反感，并会降低你的听众记住你所说内容或你实际上获得额外会议的机会。
That’s it—that’s a complete pitch. Resist the temptation to give the other person more details about what you’re doing unless they specifically asks for them. More often than not, more detail is off-putting and reduces the chance that your audience will retain what you say or that you’ll actually get an additional meeting.
推介会
另一个极端是正式的推介会。如果您工作室的创意总监或总经理邀请您推介新游戏的想法，或者在潜在发行商或投资者的办公室，这种推介会可能会在您工作的地方举行。这种推介会通常持续半小时到一个小时，包括您的陈述和会议室中其他人的一些问题。请注意将陈述时间限制在您可用的时间范围内（练习！），确保在最后留出至少 5 到 10 分钟来回答问题。
The other end of the spectrum is the formal pitch meeting. This might happen where you work, if the creative director or general manager for your studio has invited you to pitch your idea for a new game, or at a potential publisher’s or investor’s office. Such pitches tend to last half an hour to an hour, including both a presentation from you and some questions from others in the room. Be careful to scale your presentation to the time you have available (practice!), being sure to leave at least 5 to 10 minutes for questions at the end.
推介会通常由幻灯片、视频和演示组成，如下所述。请确保您已准备好演示文稿的备份到不同的媒体上，以便您可以将其加载到另一台计算机上，或者在最坏的情况下，甚至可以分发纸质副本。
The pitch presentation is typically made up of slides, video, and sometimes a demo, as discussed below. Be sure you are prepared with backups for your presentation on different media so that you can load it onto another computer or, in the worst case, even pass out paper copies.
在进行演示时，要注意节奏。演示要流畅，但不要太快，以免失去听众的注意力，也不要太慢，以免让他们感到无聊。留意会议中的人是否跟上你的节奏很重要。当然，你要说话清楚，避免坐立不安。再次强调，练习是无价的。
In going through your presentation, watch your pacing. You want to keep the presentation moving along—but not so fast that you lose your audience’s attention and not so slowly that you’re boring them. Keeping an eye on whether the people in the meeting are tracking with you is important. Of course, you want to speak clearly and avoid fidgeting. Again, practice is invaluable.
无论是在演讲过程中还是演讲结束后，当有人问你问题时，请尽可能简短、全面地回答。如果你很幸运，演讲过程中的问题会突出你即将提出的观点，或者在演讲的后面会出现的观点。这表明提问的人正在注意你，并在你讲话时建立起对演讲的心理模型。在这种情况下，简短地回答问题，并指出你稍后会更全面地回答它（但一定要这样做！）。除非你被特别问到技术细节，否则不要谈论它们，也不要偏离主题。在回答问题之前花点时间整理一下思路也是可以的；这比试图用结结巴巴的话语填补沉默要好得多。你还需要警惕有时被称为“演讲背后的问题”问题”——被问到的真正问题。如果有人提出你提议的游戏，他们真的是在问竞争问题，还是想验证他们对你的概念模型？或者，如果他们问团队中还有谁，他们真的是在问潜在的预算问题，还是在问你开发游戏的经验和能力？回答问题，然后看看你是否可以深入挖掘并尝试解决该问题的潜在原因。
When you’re asked a question, either during the presentation or afterward, answer it briefly and as fully as you can. If you’re fortunate, a question during the presentation will highlight a point you’re about to make or that will come up later in the presentation. This indicates that the person who asked is paying attention and building a mental model of your presentation as you speak. In such cases, briefly answer the question and point out that you’ll address it more fully in a moment (but be sure to do so!). Avoid technical details unless you’re specifically asked about them, and don’t veer off topic. It’s okay to take a moment and collect your thoughts before answering a question, too; this is much better than trying to fill the silence with stammered words. You also want to be alert for what’s sometimes called “the question behind the question”—the real concern that’s being asked about. If someone brings up a game like the one you’re proposing, are they really asking about competition or trying to validate their model of your concept? Or if they ask about who else is on the team, are they really asking about potential budget issues, or are they asking about your experience and ability to develop the game? Answer what’s been asked but then see if you can dig deeper and try to address what’s likely underlying that question.
有时，问题完全出乎意料，你会发现自己完全没有准备。如果是这样，不要害怕说“我不知道”。或者，如果适用的话，说“我不知道，但我会找出答案并回复你”。这两种方式都比试图用虚张声势来掩盖自己的无知要好得多；这只会降低听众对你和你所说的一切的尊重。在某些情况下，你甚至可以询问听众的想法、他们的经验或他们会推荐什么；只要小心表现出（真诚地）对新信息持开放态度，而不是消息不灵通。当然，如果你练习过演讲，你应该对大多数问题做好准备。你甚至可以在演讲结束时添加附录，以帮助回答问题。（这让你看起来像是掌控一切，这很好。）
Sometimes a question will be entirely unexpected, and you will find yourself wholly unprepared for it. If that’s the case, don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know.” Or, if it’s applicable, say “I don’t know, but I’ll find out and get back to you.” Either is far better than trying to bluster your way through an answer while covering your own ignorance; that just reduces your audience’s regard for you and everything else you’ve said. In some cases, you can even ask those in your audience what they think, what their experience has been, or what they would recommend; just be careful to appear (sincerely) open to new information but not ill-informed. Of course, if you’ve practiced your presentation, you should be prepared for most questions. You can even add an appendix to the end of your presentation that you show to help answers questions. (This makes you look like you’re on top of things, which is great.)
如果最后你没有收到任何问题，这通常是一个不好的迹象：这意味着你所说的内容没有产生任何影响或让听众觉得有趣。（也许他们对你的理念和演示感到敬畏，以至于他们甚至无法提出一个关键问题……但这种情况不太可能发生。）实际上，他们没有按照你所描述的那样建立你的游戏的心理模型，所以他们没有空白需要填补。另一方面，如果会议持续了很长时间，提出了很多问题和不同的观点，那么你就知道你的听众参与其中，并且已经内化了你所说的至少一部分内容。
If you don’t get any questions at the end, that’s often a bad sign: it means what you said didn’t have any impact or strike your audience as interesting. (Maybe they were so awed by your concept and presentation that they can’t even form a critical question … but this is unlikely.) In effect, they didn’t build a mental model of your game as you described it, so they have no gaps to be filled in. On the other hand, if the meeting goes over time with lots of questions and different points being made, then you know your audience is engaged and has internalized at least some of what you have been talking about.
推介内容
Pitch Content
无论是非正式还是正式的演讲，开头通常都是一样的。之后，这两种类型的演讲就完全不同了。你应该从简短的自我介绍开始——介绍你自己和与你一起的其他人。这应该很快，因为这不是你的听众真正关注的重点。同时，你要简短地谈谈你的信誉和资历，这些资历使你有资格了解你在说什么。特别是在正式演讲中，你可以快速提到你过去做过的事情，这让你知道自己在做什么，并很好地完成它。这种简洁的介绍也有助于你树立友好和开放的形象，并帮助你的听众安顿下来，专注于你的信息。
For both informal and formal pitches, the beginning is usually the same. After that, the two types of pitches diverge completely. You want to begin with quick introductions—yourself and any others who are with you. This should be quick because it’s not really your audience’s focus. At the same time, you want to briefly speak to your credibility and credentials that qualify you as knowing what you’re talking about. Especially in a formal presentation, you can quickly mention what you have done in the past that puts you in a position to know what you’re taking on and complete it well. This concise introduction also helps you establish yourself as friendly and open, and it helps your audience settle in to focus on your message.
在简短的介绍之后，你应该开始演讲，从游戏概念开始。你应该已经制定了一个高级概念陈述，如第 6 章“设计整体体验”中所述；概念文档的整个讨论都会直接影响你的演讲。回顾一下，你的概念陈述是一两句精致、清晰、措辞谨慎的句子，描述你的游戏，为什么它独一无二（或者至少是新颖的——为什么任何人都应该对它感兴趣），以及，如果可能的话，它为玩家提供了什么样的体验。一个衡量标准是，如果你的概念陈述使用了多个逗号，那么它就太长了。你也可以将其视为“推文中的游戏”；如果您的概念超过 140 个字符，那么可能也太长了。
After quick introductions, you should begin your presentation, starting with the concept for your game. You should already have worked out a high-level concept statement, as described in Chapter 6, "Designing the Whole Experience"; the whole discussion of the concept document feeds right into your pitch. To review, your concept statement is a polished, clear, and carefully worded sentence or two that describes your game, why it’s unique (or at least fresh—why anyone should be interested in it), and, if possible, what kind of experience it provides the player. One metric is that if your concept statement uses more than one comma, it’s too long. You can also think of this as “your game in a tweet”; if your concept goes on for more than about 140 characters, that’s probably too long, too.
以下是概念陈述的模板示例：
The following are examples of templates for concept statements:
“<我的游戏>是一款关于<活动>的游戏，<由于这几个原因而显得新鲜>。”
“<My game> is a game about <activity> that <is fresh for these few reasons>.”
“在<我的游戏>中你<面对这个挑战>和<这个转折>并且<给你这种感觉/体验>。”
“In <my game> you <face this challenge> with <this twist> that <gives you this feeling/experience>.”
“<我的游戏>是<电影 x>与<书 y>的结合。”
“<My game> is <movie x> meets <book y>.”
“<我的游戏>是<电影 x>与<电视节目 y>在类似<事物 z>的世界中相遇。”
“<My game> is <movie x> meets <TV show y> in a world like <thing z>.”
这里的挑战是，你的概念陈述需要简短而精辟，但也要涵盖整个游戏。它需要足够简短，以便第一次听到它的人可以掌握整个陈述，而不会感到负担过重而不得不再次听到。概念陈述不仅需要传达你的游戏是什么，还需要传达它与其他游戏的不同之处。你想让这个陈述尽可能简短和令人难忘，这可能是一项出乎意料的艰巨任务。
The challenge here is that your concept statement needs to be short and pithy but also cover the entire game. It needs to be brief enough that someone hearing it for the first time can grasp the entire statement without being overloaded and having to hear it again. And the concept statement needs to communicate not only what your game is about but also what makes it different from other games. You want to make this statement as short and memorable as possible, which can be a surprisingly difficult task.
得出这样的概念陈述并不容易，你应该花时间完善它并与其他人一起练习。对你来说简单易懂的东西往往对别人来说并非如此。准备好对此进行多次迭代，直到对措辞进行微小的更改以使陈述正确无误。练习这个陈述还会帮助你在脑海中清晰地表达，这样即使你很紧张，你也能很好地表达出来——无论是因为你刚刚和你想见的人一起走进电梯，还是因为你发现自己站在会议室前面，投影仪照在你眼前。
Arriving at a concept statement like this is not easy, and you should spend the time needed to refine and practice it with other people. What seems simple and understandable to you often won’t sound that way to others. Be prepared to iterate on this a lot, right down to making tiny changes in wording to get the statement to the right place. Practicing this statement will also help you get it so clear in your head that you can say it well even when you’re nervous—whether because you’ve just stepped into an elevator with someone you want to meet or because you find yourself at the front of a board room with the projector shining in your eyes.
如果这次推介是一次偶然的机会或简短的会议，那么你可能只有时间进行介绍和概念陈述。你不想显得过于急切（更不想显得绝望），只是对你正在做的事情感到友好和兴奋。在这种情况下，你最后要留下的是“行动号召”，本章后面会讨论。另一方面，如果你有更多时间进行详细说明，特别是如果这是一次正式的推介，你需要扩展你的概念陈述。这包括概念文档中常见的信息（参见第 6 章），例如游戏的类型、目标受众和独特卖点。
If this pitch is a chance or brief meeting, that introduction and concept statement is probably all you have time for. You don’t want to seem overly eager (much less desperate), just friendly and excited about what you’re working on. In this kind of situation, the final thing you want to leave with is your “call to action,” discussed later in this chapter. If, on the other hand, you have more time to go into detail, especially if this is a formal pitch, you need to expand on your concept statement. This includes the information commonly found in a concept document (see Chapter 6) such as the game’s genre, target audience, and unique selling points.
记住冰山
从概念陈述到概念文档中包含的附加信息，以及整个推介的其余部分，您需要遵循第 6 章中描述的“冰山”方法。不要试图将有关游戏的所有信息都塞进推介中，也不要用细节让观众不知所措。从概念和设计的冰山一角开始，帮助观众建立游戏的心理模型，然后根据需要添加更多信息。准备好深入了解任何特定领域的细节，因为有人问你关于它们的问题。
From the concept statement to the additional information contained in the concept document and throughout the rest of the pitch, you want to follow the “iceberg” approach described in Chapter 6. Don’t try to pack all the information about your game into your pitch and don’t overwhelm your audience with detail. Start with the tip of the iceberg for the concept and design, help the audience build a mental model of your game, and then add more information as needed. Be prepared to drill down into the details of any particular areas as you’re asked about them.
如果你正在正式进行推销，你应该假设你会使用某种形式的演示幻灯片；这是很常见的，也是普遍的假设。然而，你希望这些幻灯片上的信息尽可能清晰易懂。尽量减少文字；幻灯片上只有图片它们是完全可以接受的，并且可以帮助观众听你说话而不是提前阅读幻灯片。 （但是，处理仅有图片的幻灯片也需要你多加练习，以免忘记讲到的位置。）绝对要避免展示任何接近视觉“文字墙”的内容；超过三到最多五个项目符号或跨越多行的文字都太多了。请记住，你需要避免试图一次性告诉观众所有内容的诱惑。你通常应该计划在演示文稿中使用不超过 10 张幻灯片。只要你能传达你需要的所有内容，幻灯片数量可以更少。如果你的幻灯片数量超过 10 张，那么你可能会试图塞入太多内容。如前所述，最好准备一些附录幻灯片，它们不是主要演示文稿的一部分，但如果被要求，你可以参考它们了解更多详细信息。
If you are giving a formal pitch, you should assume that you will use some form of presentation slides; this is common and generally assumed. However, you want to keep the information on these slides as clear and understandable as possible. Minimize text; slides with only images on them are perfectly acceptable and will help the audience listen to you rather than read ahead on the slides. (However, working with picture-only slides also requires more practice on your part, to avoid losing your place.) Definitely avoid showing anything that approaches a visual “wall of text”; more than about three to at most five bullet points or text that wraps across multiple lines is too much. Remember that you need to avoid the temptation to try to tell your audience everything all at once. You should generally plan to have no more than 10 slides in your presentation. Fewer slides is fine, as long as you’re communicating everything you need to. If you have more slides than that, you may be trying to cram in too much. As mentioned earlier, it is a good idea to have appendix slides that aren’t part of the main presentation but to which you can refer for more detail if asked.
在您介绍了您的概念和相关主题并进一步介绍了您的团队之后，您将需要给出游戏玩法的大纲和示例。以图形方式展示核心循环。（如果您还不能清楚地描述核心循环，那么您还没有准备好进行推销。）提供有关游戏发生世界的简要信息，以及游戏艺术风格的示例。理想情况下，这包括您的团队创建的早期概念艺术，但从其他来源获取的参考/情绪艺术也可以，只要您将其标记为此类。
After you have gone over your concept and related topics and said a little more about your team, you will want to give an outline, with examples, of the gameplay. Show the core loop graphically. (If you can’t yet describe the core loop clearly, you aren’t ready to be pitching.) Provide brief information about the world where the game takes place, along with examples of the art style for the game. Ideally, this includes early concept art your team has created, but reference/mood art taken from other sources is fine, as long as you label it as such.
在整个演示过程中，您要确保幻灯片看起来专业且专业：没有拼写错误或格式不匹配，没有意外或小故障。请保持一两种不同的字体和大量清晰、专业的图形。例如，如果您在图形程序中制作核心循环图，请确保它看起来经过精心打磨，而不是像匆忙制作的初稿。您可能希望人们忽略的小毛边往往正是他们的眼睛被吸引的东西，会分散注意力并降低演示的影响力。
Throughout your presentation, you want to be sure your slides appear professional and competent: no spelling errors or formatting mismatches, no surprises or glitches. Keep to one or two different fonts and lots of clear, professional graphics. If you make a core loop diagram in a graphics program, for example, make sure it looks polished, not like a quickly made first draft. The small rough edges that you might hope people will overlook are often the very things that their eyes snag on and that distract from and reduce the impact of your presentation.
除了讨论概念、玩法和艺术风格之外，您还需要建立受众对您和游戏的信心。要做到这一点，您可以选择多种方式来展示您的宣传内容，请按偏好顺序排列：
In addition to discussing the concept, gameplay, and art style, you need to build the audience’s confidence in both you and the game. To do this, there are a number of options you have for what to show as part of your pitch, in order of preference:
1.一款已完成并正在销售的游戏，包括近期和预计的销售和营销数据。没有什么比实际销售更能给投资者、出版商或媒体带来信心。
1. An already completed game that is being sold, including both recent and projected sales and marketing figures. Nothing instills confidence in an investor, a publisher, or a media outlet like actual sales.
2.已完成或接近完成的产品，即使尚未出售，也应具备具有营销和销售预测的强大商业案例。
2. A completed or nearly completed product, even if it’s not yet being sold, along with a strong business case with marketing and sales projections.
3.游戏的互动演示，包括精美的艺术和用户界面。您可能希望从演示视频开始，但也要准备好实际的现场演示。
3. An interactive demo of the game, including polished art and user interface. You may want to start with a video of a demo but have the actual live demo ready, too.
4.一个可以工作的交互式原型，突出核心游戏玩法。
4. A working interactive prototype that highlights the core gameplay.
5.一个视频预告片，展示你认为游戏完成后的样子。请注意，如果你有演示、原型或视频，你应该确保它包含声音！套用乔治·卢卡斯的话，“声音是画面的一半”（Fantel 1992）。
5. A video trailer of what you believe the game will look like when finished. Note that if you have a demo, prototype, or video, you should be sure it includes sound! To paraphrase George Lucas, “sound is half the picture” (Fantel 1992).
6.一组静态模型，这实际上是你在推销时应该使用的最少的东西。
6. A set of static mockups, which is really the minimum you should use for a pitch.
除非这是非正式或快速的推介，否则您要避免使用模糊的口头描述来说明您对游戏未来发展的看法——这通常被称为“挥手示意”，最好避免。在演示中，唯一比这更糟糕的事情是制作糟糕的幻灯片，其中包含大量文字和很少的游戏进度图片。
Unless this is an informal or quick pitch, you want to avoid relying on vague verbal descriptions of how you see the game working in the future—this is often referred to as “hand waving” and is something best avoided. The only thing worse than this in a presentation would be a poorly constructed slide deck with a lot of text and few pictures of the game in progress.
在整个演示过程中，您需要让大家对您和您的游戏充满热情和信心，同时降低风险意识。发行商不会为有风险的想法提供资金，媒体也不想报道几乎没有机会实现的事情，新人通常不会加入看起来可能会失败的项目（除非他们已经认识并信任您本人）。
Throughout your presentation, you want to build excitement and confidence in you and your game while also reducing the perception of risk. Publishers don’t fund risky ideas, the media don’t want to report on things that have little chance of becoming real, and new people often don’t join projects that look like they might fail (unless they know and trust you personally already).
你要自信，但不要咄咄逼人。不要反驳别人提出的问题；只要顺势而为，尽你所能地回答就行了。这是你可以练习的另一件事：你需要能够回答问题，而不是直接说提问的人不知道他们在说什么。你也不想显得紧张或害怕——绝对不应该为紧张道歉或开玩笑。继续演讲，记住你已经练习过几十次了。始终保持专业和礼貌。要友好，但也要明白演讲不是要交朋友；坚持你的目标。不要假设你和房间里的人太熟悉，但也不要太拘谨。（很简单，对吧？）
You want to be confident but not aggressive. Don’t push back on questions that are asked; just roll with them and answer them the best you can. This is something else you can practice: you need to be able to answer questions without directly saying that the person who asked has no idea what they’re talking about. You also don’t want to appear nervous or scared—and definitely shouldn’t apologize for being nervous or joke about it. Just get on with the presentation, remembering that you’ve practiced this dozens of times. Remain professional and courteous at all times. Be friendly but also understand that the pitch isn’t about making friends; stick to your goals. Don’t assume too much familiarity with those in the room but don’t be stiffly formal either. (Easy, right?)
发出行动呼吁并采取后续行动
无论是一句话还是长达一小时的演讲，在完成演讲之后，最后要做的就是发出“行动号召”。这是你希望在这次推介会后发生的事情，尤其是你希望其他人做的事情。回到你的目标。你想从这次推介会中得到什么？这是一次简短的会议，你们在会上交换名片并安排下次会议？还是一次正式的推介会，你希望以握手言和获得数百万美元的资金而告终？你必须说出你想要的东西；正如那句老话所说，不求则无。不要要求听众无法给出的确定性，但也不要让事情变得过于模糊。如果可能的话，设定一个后续电话或会议的日期，或者更好的是，设定一个决策日期。
Having gone through your presentation, whether one sentence or an hour-long presentation, the last thing to do is to issue a “call to action.” This is what you want to have happen—and especially what you want others to do—as a result of this pitch. Go back to your goals. What do you want get from giving this pitch? Was this a brief meeting where you exchanged cards and set up the next meeting? Or was this a formal pitch that you hoped would end with a handshake on millions of dollars of funding? You have to say what you want; as the old saying goes, you don’t get what you don’t ask for. Don’t press for more certainty than your audience can give but don’t leave things any more ambiguous than they need to be, either. If at all possible, set a date for a follow-up call or meeting or, even better, a decision date.
推介会后
After the Pitch
推介结束后，您需要跟进您推介的对象。至少，发送一封简短的电子邮件或类似内容，感谢个人抽出时间。如果在推介过程中有人问您无法立即回答的问题，请写下来，并将其用作日后自然跟进的工具。
After the pitch is complete, you will want to follow up with whomever you pitched to. At minimum, send a brief email or similar thanking the individuals for their time. If questions are asked during the pitch that you can’t answer immediately, write them down and use them as a vehicle for natural follow-up later on.
如果你的推介会进展顺利，你应该庆祝一下。这意味着你已经克服了一个大障碍，很快就可以开始开发游戏的真正工作了。然而，大多数时候你都会失败。这就是推介的运作方式。你需要做好准备，看不到积极的结果，然后重新站起来，一次又一次地推介。坚持是推介和开发任何游戏的重要组成部分。
If your pitch meeting goes well, you should celebrate. It means you’re past a big hurdle and can soon start the real work of developing your game. However, most of the time you pitch, you will fail. That’s just how pitching works. You need to be prepared to not see a positive outcome and to get back up and pitch again and again. Persistence is a big part of pitching and developing any game.
当会议进展不顺利时，请回顾会议中与您自己的假设不符的评论：您听到的关于游戏、市场甚至您的团队的意见是否与您的看法不符？承认这一点可能非常困难，但您可以通过对与您自己的看法不符（甚至积极削弱您自己看法）的观点持开放态度来学习宝贵的经验教训。
When a meeting doesn’t go well, review what was said for comments that don’t fit with your own assumptions: is there something about the game, the market, or even your team that you’re hearing that doesn’t match what you see? This can be very difficult to admit to, but you can learn valuable lessons by being open to points of view that don’t match—or that even actively undercut—your own.
虽然在推介会上不顺利绝对不是什么好事，但得到“快速拒绝”的答复其实对你有利。这意味着你可以继续前进，调整需要改变的地方，并继续向前看。如果出版商、高管、投资者、记者和潜在团队成员擅长自己的工作，他们拥有的机会比他们可能答应的要多。这意味着他们必须经常说“不”。不幸的是，有时出版商和投资者不想说“不”，即使他们没有答应。他们想尽可能长时间地保留选择权。这可能会导致一位英国游戏开发商所说的“死于茶和烤饼”。你永远不会得到“是”或“否”的答案，而与此同时，出版商或投资者很乐意不时开会讨论你在做什么——而不做任何承诺。这会阻止你获得更好的机会，如果你是一家小开发商，这可能会威胁到你的整个公司。因此，当向出版商或投资者推销时，要（以专业、礼貌的方式）推动快速解决方案，并在解决方案到来时感谢他们的快速拒绝。
While having a pitch meeting not go your way is never fun, getting a “fast no” is actually in your favor. It means you can move on, adjust what needs to be changed, and keep looking forward. Publishers, executives, investors, reporters, and potential team members all have more opportunities than they could possibly say yes to, if they are at all good at what they do. This means they have to say no a lot. Unfortunately, sometimes publishers and investors don’t want to say no, even if they’re not saying yes. They want to keep their options open as long as possible. This can lead to what one British game developer called “death by tea and crumpets.” You’re never going to get a yes or a no answer, and in the meantime the publisher or investor is happy to have meetings now and then to talk about what you’re doing—without making any commitment. This can prevent you from moving on to better opportunities, and if you’re a small developer, it can threaten your entire company. Thus when pitching to a publisher or an investor, push (in a professional, courteous manner) for a fast resolution—and be thankful for the fast no when it comes.
无论推介会是否顺利，您都应该与您的团队会面，或者，如果您是独自一人进行推介，请找一个安静的地方写下您对会议的想法。一旦您离开大楼（不是在电梯或大厅，而是回到您的车里或任何地方，以防万一），趁会议还记忆犹新时回顾会议。通过承认哪些地方进展顺利和哪些地方没有进展来评估您的表现。看看下次您可以做些什么来从这次会议中吸取教训并改进推介。无论这次会议进展如何，总会有另一次推介。
Whether a pitch meeting goes well or not, you should meet with your team, or, if you were pitching alone, take time in a quiet space to write down your thoughts about the meeting. Once you’re out of the building (not in the elevator or the lobby, but back in your car or wherever, just to be safe), go over the meeting while it’s still fresh. Critique your performance by acknowledging both what went well and what didn’t. See what you can do next time to learn from this meeting and improve the pitch. No matter how this one went, there will always be another pitch.
构建游戏
Building the Game
讨论完游戏推广后，我们现在来谈谈游戏开发的实际过程。这必然是一个复杂、反复的过程，每次都不一样。然而，游戏行业已经形成了规律和启发式方法，使开发过程更加有效。
Having discussed pitching your game, we now turn to what actually goes into building the game. This is necessarily a complex, iterative process that is never the same twice. However, there are regularities and heuristics that have evolved in the games industry to make for a more effective development process.
设计、构建和测试
Designing, Building, and Testing
设计、构建和测试游戏都是整个开发过程中应该进行的活动。它们形成自己的循环，每个循环都会导致下一个循环。然而，它们并不是完全连续的，因为每个循环都是在其他循环进行时发生的。当你开始研究游戏概念时，你也可以开始研究参考艺术，然后是概念艺术。您对游戏的核心循环有一些想法，您应该构建它并测试它，同时继续进行设计。
Designing, building, and testing your game are all activities that should go on throughout development. They form their own loop, with each leading to the next. They are not fully sequential, however, as each happens while the others are under way. As you begin working on the game concept, you can also start working on reference art and then concept art. As soon as you have some idea of the game’s core loop, you should be building it out and testing it, while continuing to work on the design.
最初，你和你的团队会更专注于设计。随着时间的推移，随着设计的逐渐成型，你的大部分注意力将集中在实施设计上。最后，设计变更的范围将越来越小，开发将逐渐结束，大部分精力将用于测试和修复发现的任何错误。然而，虽然侧重点不同，但重要的是要明白，这并不是三个截然不同的阶段：当你在设计时，你还必须构建和测试以完善设计。随着你继续构建游戏，仍然会有设计变更，尽管它们的范围应该越来越有限，细节和平衡性应该越来越强。游戏玩法测试应该在整个开发过程中进行，而不是拖到最后。
Initially, you and your team will be more focused on design than anything else. Over time, as the design solidifies, most of your attention will be on implementing the design. Finally, design changes will become smaller and smaller in scope, development will wind down, and most of the effort will be on testing and fixing any bugs found. However, while there are different points of emphasis, it is important to understand that these are not three distinct phases: when you are designing, you must also be building and testing to refine the design. As you continue to build the game, there will still be design changes, though they should be more and more circumscribed in scope and greater in detail and balancing. Testing the gameplay should happen throughout development and not be put off to the end.
快速找到乐趣
Finding the Fun Fast
开始设计游戏时，您的首要目标应该是测试游戏的主要概念，以确保它是一款可行的游戏。这通常被称为“快速找到乐趣”，您不能将其推迟到以后，以免在此期间浪费宝贵的时间和资源。有时一个想法听起来不错，但就是不太可行。或者在开始开发时，以前看不见的技术、互动性或游戏性问题变得显而易见。如果是这种情况，您希望尽快知道。如果不是，知道游戏从根本上是可行的，可以让您在开发游戏时更有信心。
As you begin designing your game, your first major goal should be to test the game’s primary concept to make sure it’s a viable game. This is often called “find the fun fast,” and you can’t afford to put it off until later and risk wasting valuable time and resources in the meantime. Sometimes an idea sounds good and just doesn’t quite come together. Or in starting to develop it, technical, interactivity, or gameplay issues that were invisible before become obvious. If this is the case, you want to know as quickly as possible. And if it’s not, knowing that the game is fundamentally sound gives you more confidence as you develop it.
找到乐趣的方法是让游戏的互动循环运转起来。没有真正的艺术或缺少很多游戏玩法并不重要：你需要关闭玩家和游戏之间的循环，这样才能实现真正的互动。这应该是你开发游戏概念的第一个重要里程碑。不要陷入这样的想法：你首先需要构建地图编辑器、决定游戏的图标或为主角写背景故事；所有这些可能都很重要，但一开始它们会分散注意力。
The way you find the fun is to get the interactive loop of the game working. It doesn’t matter if there’s no real art or if a lot of the gameplay is missing: you need to close the loop between the player and the game so that real interactivity is possible. This should be your first big milestone toward developing your game concept. Don’t get trapped into thinking that you first need to build a map editor or decide on the game’s iconography or write the backstory for the main character; all these may be important, but at first they are distractions.
事实是，除非你关闭了互动循环，并确定你的设计确实有吸引人且有趣的内容，否则你还没有制作出一款游戏。除非你知道自己有一款游戏，否则在其他任何事情上投入过多精力都是没有意义的。
The truth is that until you have closed the interactive loop and determined that in fact there is something in your design that’s engaging and fun, you do not have a game. Until you know you have a game, it doesn’t make sense to work too much on anything else.
有效的游戏原型设计
Effective Game Prototyping
设计-构建-测试循环的一个关键部分是构建快速原型。在早期，这是你快速发现乐趣的方法。随着项目的推进，你会发现使用原型测试游戏其他方面的方法。
A key part of the design–build–test loop is building rapid prototypes. Early on, this is how you find the fun fast. As the project goes forward, you will find other ways to use prototypes to test other aspects of the game.
在游戏开发中，原型的定义（和其他许多东西一样）很宽泛，并不总是很明确。然而，基于多年来不断发展的最佳实践，我们可以更具体一些地定义原型。游戏原型是游戏中任何允许至少一个交互式循环。非交互式图像不是原型；它是一个模型（即使它是动画）。游戏视频（真实的或预定的）也不是原型。如果正在运行的模拟是非交互式的，它也不是游戏原型（尽管有时有理由进行这样的专门技术测试）。本质上，如果有人不能玩它，它就不是游戏原型。
In game development, the definition of prototype (like so much else) is broad and not always clear. We can define prototype a little more specifically, however, based on years of evolving best practices. A game prototype is any working portion of a game that allows at least one interactive loop. A noninteractive image isn’t a prototype; it’s a mockup (even when it’s animated). A video of gameplay (real or predetermined) isn’t a prototype, either. A running simulation also isn’t a game prototype if it’s noninteractive (though there are sometimes reasons to make specialized technical tests like this). In essence, if someone can’t play it, it’s not a game prototype.
游戏原型必须包含交互的原因是，否则，它们实际上并不是在测试游戏或帮助你完成游戏。非交互程序可能会测试算法或模拟，但它并不是在创建和测试游戏。在制作游戏时，通常需要对非游戏领域进行短暂的探索。但为了保持开发向前发展，并让你对游戏设计充满信心，原型必须在每一步都具有交互性，并更接近你最终想要看到的游戏。
The reason game prototypes must include interaction is that otherwise, they are not really testing the game or helping you move toward its completion. A noninteractive program may test an algorithm or simulation, but it is not creating and testing a game. Brief excursions into nongame territory when making a game are often needed. But to keep the development moving forward and your confidence high in the game design, a prototype must at every step be interactive and move closer to the game you eventually want to see.
模拟和数字原型
Analog and Digital Prototypes
原型可以采用不同的形式，并包含不同数量和类型的功能。桌面游戏的原型可以用任何东西制作，从纸片开始。对于数字游戏，早期原型通常由实物材料（纸张、骰子、白板）制成，它们可能只包含足够的内容来创建一个交互循环，尤其是在开发早期。无论原型是数字的还是模拟的，交互方面（玩家形成意图，通过游戏中的动作来实现，扰乱内部游戏模型，并让游戏为玩家创建反馈）都是任何原型的必要组成部分。
Prototypes can take different forms and include different numbers and types of features. Prototypes for tabletop games may be made out of just about anything, from scraps of paper on up. For digital games, early prototypes are often made out of physical materials (paper, dice, a whiteboard), and they may contain just enough to create a single interactive loop, especially early on in development. Whether a prototype is digital or analog, though, the interactive aspect—with the player forming an intention, carrying it out via an action in the game, perturbing the internal game model, and having the game create feedback for the player—is a necessary part of any prototype.
创建原型是为了让您的游戏创意变得切实可行且易于测试——以了解您认为的可以制作出引人入胜的游戏的想法是否真的可以做到。在开发初期，数字原型是一个相对简单的独立程序，旨在测试游戏的一部分，首先关注核心循环。后期的原型可能会复杂得多，包含更多游戏本身的内容。
You create prototypes to make your game ideas tangible and testable—to find out if what you think will make an engaging game actually does. Early in development, a digital prototype is a relatively simple standalone program designed to test one portion of the game, focusing first on the core loops. Later prototypes may be considerably more complex, incorporating more of the game itself.
保持原型分离
Keeping Prototypes Separate
原型的独立性指出了一个重要方面：原型从来都不是游戏产品本身的一部分。它们总是单独实现的。随着开发的进行，您可能最终会使用数字游戏程序的某些部分作为原型的基础，但原型中的代码永远不会朝另一个方向发展：它永远不会成为游戏产品的一部分，无论让它成为游戏产品的一部分有多诱人。这是一个重要的教训，很容易被忽视，但忽视它只会导致更多问题。原型必须保持自由，才能快速、丑陋且内部完全未优化。如果您发现自己在开发原型时放慢速度以“以正确的方式编写某些内容”，或者想知道是否可以将一些原型代码复制并粘贴到您的游戏中，那么您需要停下来重新考虑。那么您制作的既不是原型，也不是游戏的可行部分，而是一个可怕的混合体，从长远来看会给您带来麻烦。
The freestanding nature of prototypes points to a vital aspect: prototypes are never part of the game product itself. They are always implemented separately. As development moves along, you may end up using portions of your digital game program as the basis for a prototype, but the code from the prototype never goes in the other direction: it does not ever become part of the game product, no matter how enticing it may be to make it so. This is an important lesson that can be tempting to ignore, but ignoring it only leads to more problems. Prototypes must remain free to be fast, ugly, and entirely unoptimized internally. If you find yourself ever slowing down when developing a prototype to “code something up the right way” or wondering if maybe you can copy and paste some prototype code into your game, you need to stop and reconsider. What you’re making then is neither a prototype nor a viable part of your game but a horrible hybrid that will create trouble for you in the long run.
开始原型设计
Getting Started with Prototyping
虽然游戏原型必须展示某种形式的交互，但只要你有了想法并形成了游戏概念，几乎没有什么可以阻止你创建游戏原型。从简单开始。不要觉得你需要在制作原型之前创建整个经济或战斗系统。从世界上的基本运动或其他简单的游戏内动作开始。虽然原型非常适合测试不同的艺术和动画风格，但请将其留到以后再做：首先专注于制作一个交互式循环，然后使用它让玩家以在游戏中有意义的方式实现一个非常简单的目标（例如，从这里移动到那里）。随着时间的推移，添加更多选择和更多交互式循环 - 但不要太快：确保游戏中的基本核心循环引人入胜且有趣。如果不是这样，无论装饰多少它们都不会让它们在以后变得有趣；它们将永远是游戏中乏味、令人沮丧的部分。
While a game prototype must show some form of interaction, there is very little else that should keep you from creating prototypes of your game as soon as you have the idea and form the concept for the game. Start simply. Don’t feel like you need to have an entire economy or combat system created before you can make a prototype. Start with something like basic movement in the world or another simple in-game action. While prototypes are great for testing things like different art and animation styles, leave those for later: focus first on making an interactive loop and then using that to allow a player to enact even a very simple goal (for example, moving from here to over there) in a way that makes sense in your game. Over time, add more choices and more interactive loops—but not too quickly: make sure the basic, core loops in the game are engaging and fun. If they’re not, no amount of dressing them up will make them fun later; they will always be lackluster, frustrating parts of your game.
回答问题
Answering Questions
原型可以让你提出和回答有关游戏的问题。第一个也是最大的问题是“这好玩吗？”即使只有一个基本的原型，你也应该能够开始回答有关游戏中基本核心循环的这个问题。
Prototypes allow you to ask and answer questions about your game. The first and biggest one is “Is this fun?” Even with a rudimentary prototype, you should be able to begin to answer this question about the basic core loops in your game.
不要惊讶于这个问题的答案通常是否定的。很多时候原型会显示你的设计行不通。特别是你的第一个原型通常会显示你原本以为会成为游戏伟大核心循环的东西最终变得乏味或无聊。一般来说，特别是直到你学会更好地策划自己的想法之前，你最初的设计想法会很糟糕。在最好的情况下，它们可能是平庸的，并且是从其他游戏中的设计中衍生出来的。但你可能直到你在原型中尝试了设计，将它从大脑的束缚中解放出来并放到现实世界中时才会发现这一点。那时你就会发现它有多么糟糕。
Don’t be surprised that the answer to this question is very often no. Many times a prototype will show that your design doesn’t work. Your first prototypes in particular will often reveal that what you thought was going to be a great core loop for your game turns out to be tedious or boring. As a rule, especially until you learn to curate your own ideas better, your first ideas on a design will be terrible. At best, they might be mediocre and derivative of designs found in other game. But you likely won’t see this until you have tried out the design in a prototype, freeing it from the confines of your brain and putting it out in the real world. That’s when you get to see how thoroughly broken it is.
看到一个设计理念完全失败可能会令人非常沮丧，但不要因此而放慢脚步。这是游戏设计的重要组成部分。从成功和失败中吸取教训，准备再次尝试，并庆幸自己刚刚以很少的投入发现了一个残酷的事实；现在发现这一点比在六个月的开发后发现要好得多。如果一个原型不起作用，请从中吸取教训，尝试另一种方法来实现你的概念。你可能需要调整你对游戏的想法；也许最好让它节奏更快或更具战略性，或者也许那里有一个你以前没有见过的情感核心。仅仅因为某种实现游戏概念的方法不起作用并不意味着概念本身毫无价值；你可能只需要尝试不同的原型来查看哪些有效。这就是为什么“寻找乐趣”如此重要，以及为什么你需要尽快做到这一点。现在弄清楚这一点，你将在以后为自己省去很多不必要的工作（和悲伤）。
Seeing a design idea fall completely flat can be extremely disheartening, but don’t let it slow you down. This is a large part of game design. Learn from what worked and didn’t, get ready to try again, and take solace in the fact that you have just discovered a hard truth with very little investment; it’s far better to find this out now than after six months of development. If one prototype doesn’t work, learn from it and try another way of approaching your concept. You may have to adjust your thinking on the game; maybe it’s better to make it faster paced or instead more strategic, or maybe there’s an emotional core there that you hadn’t seen before. Just because a particular way of approaching the game concept doesn’t work doesn’t mean the concept itself is worthless; you may just have to try different prototypes to see what works. This is why “finding the fun” is so important and why you need to do this as soon as possible. You will save yourself a lot of unnecessary work (and grief) later on by figuring this out now.
明确的目标和问题
除了关于游戏的最基本（也是最重要的）问题之外，在构建原型时，始终牢记明确的目标和问题也很重要。这个问题应该明确，并导致您的游戏和开发方式发生重大变化。如果您发现团队成员不确定或争论要往哪个方向发展，那么这是一个转变为原型的绝佳情况：停止争论，找出问题，构建原型进行测试，看看它会带您走向何方。诸如“一种资源足够吗，还是我们需要更多？”或“这种战斗风格对玩家来说有趣吗？”之类的问题都是很好的起点。问题和原型越精确，尤其是如果您可以一次快速尝试多个选项（无论是通过调整变量还是尝试游戏中完全不同的模式），您学到的东西就越多，您的表现就越好。
Beyond the most basic (and most important) questions about your game, it’s important when constructing a prototype to always have a clear goal and question in mind. This question should be unambiguous and lead to a significant change in your game and how you develop it. If you find members of the team uncertain or arguing about which direction to go, that’s an excellent situation to turn into a prototype: stop arguing, figure out the question, build a prototype to test it, and see where it takes you. Questions like “Is one resource enough, or do we need more?” or “Does this style of combat feel fun to players?” are good places to start. The more precise you can make the question and the prototype, and especially if you can quickly try more than one option at a time (whether by tuning variables or trying entirely different modes in the game), the more you will learn and the better off you will be.
明确你对玩家的假设也很重要：对于给定的原型，玩家对游戏了解多少？他们的目标是什么？他们构建了多少游戏心理模型？如前所述，玩家的目标可能很简单，比如“从这里移动到那里”，也可能更复杂，比如“在不被敌人发现的情况下完成这个任务”。这实际上取决于你在原型设计和游戏设计过程中所处的位置，但在每一步中，你的目标和玩家的目标都必须在你构建的每个原型中明确。
It’s also important to be clear about your assumptions about the player: for a given prototype, what does the player know about the game? What are their goals? How much of a mental model of the game have they built? As stated before, the player’s goal may be simple, like “move from here to there,” or it may be more complex, like “complete this quest without being seen by an enemy.” It really depends on where you are in the prototyping and game design process, but at each step of the way, your goals, and your player’s goals, have to be clear for each prototype you build.
了解目标受众
Knowing the Intended Audience
在制作原型时，除了要心中有明确的问题和目标之外，你还需要清楚地了解目标受众是谁。大多数原型制作得很快而且很丑陋，仅用于测试设计的某个特定部分。这些原型仅供游戏团队内部使用，最好保存在安全范围内。对于这些原型，你应该尽量少花时间进行“细节”或润色。使用数字原型中最简单的图形 - 正方形或 X。或者根本不要将其数字化：使用纸张、记号笔、骰子和其他任何你需要的东西以模拟形式创建游戏，只是为了测试一个概念。你制作这样的原型越快，它们通常越丑陋 - 但它们也能更有效地回答你需要澄清的问题。
In addition to having clear questions and goals in mind when making a prototype, you also need to clearly understand who is the intended audience. Most prototypes will be made quickly and will be ugly, intended only to test a particular part of the design. These are meant only for use within the game team and are best kept within those safe confines. For these prototypes, you should spend as little time on “niceties” or polish as possible. Use whatever is easiest for graphics in a digital prototype—squares or Xs. Or don’t even make it digital at all: create the game in analog form using paper, markers, dice, and whatever else you need to just to test a concept. The faster you make prototypes like this, often the uglier they are—but also the more effective they are at answering the questions you need clarified.
其他原型的受众会更广泛，因此需要不同的重点。例如，在某些组织中，需要创建所谓的游戏垂直切片。从理论上讲，这就像切开蛋糕，显示所有层。对于游戏而言，这意味着展示游戏中不同系统协同工作的实例：精致的用户界面、一致的交互方法、引人入胜且精致的艺术、有趣的探索、平衡的战斗等等，一直到游戏的工作数据库。一般的想法是，一旦您构建了数据库，开发游戏的其余部分就只是构建其余关卡、武器、服装等的问题。许多人将复杂（循环）系统误认为复杂（线性）系统。游戏设计和开发必然是复杂系统，如果您要创建任何创新的东西，就不能基于垂直切片之类的东西将系统简化为线性系统（“太好了，现在只需制作更多关卡！”）。
Other prototypes will have a broader audience and need a different emphasis. For example, in some organizations, it’s required to create what’s known as a vertical slice of your game. This is, in theory, like a slice through a cake, showing all the layers. In the case of a game, it means showing an instance of the different systems in the game all working together: a polished user interface, consistent interaction methods, engaging and polished art, interesting exploration, balanced combat, and so on, all the way down to a working database for the game. The general idea is that once you have built this, developing the rest of the game is just a matter of building the rest of the levels, weapons, costumes, and so on. Many people mistake a complex (looping) system for a complicated (linear) one. Game design and development are necessarily complex systems, and if you are creating anything innovative at all, the systems cannot be reduced to linear ones (“great, now just make more levels!”) on the basis of something like a vertical slice.
话虽如此，团队外部的利益相关者（投资者、公司管理层等）有时确实需要了解游戏在他们看来可行的进展，以便他们可以看到游戏的发展方向以及是否取得了足够的进展。不幸的是，处于这种位置的人有时并不真正了解游戏开发的工作原理，并且（无论他们怎么说）通常看不到您正在创建的引人入胜的体验，例如，当原型由屏幕上躲避方块的小圆圈组成时。存在一种矛盾，即向这些利益相关者展示一个快速、丑陋但引人入胜的原型可能会导致他们关注原型的错误部分。如果他们无法忽略糟糕的图形来获得您尝试设计和测试的体验，他们可能会对项目失去信心。不幸的是，这是一种极为常见的情况，尤其是对于尝试任何真正新事物的团队而言。在这种情况下，创建一个完全非交互式的游戏视频“演示”效果通常更好。即使这会消耗资源并分散团队实际制作游戏的注意力，但这通常是一件重要的事情。这样的视频还可以帮助团队保持联系并朝着相同的愿景努力，这对大型项目来说会有很大帮助。
That said, stakeholders from outside your team (investors, company management, and so on) sometimes do need to see what to them looks like viable progress on the game so that they can see where it’s going and whether you’re making sufficient progress. Unfortunately, those in such positions sometimes do not really understand how game development works, and (despite what they may say) often cannot see the engaging experience you are creating when a prototype consists of, for example, a small circle on the screen dodging squares. There is a tension where showing such stakeholders a fast, ugly, but engaging prototype may lead them to focus on the wrong parts of the prototype. If they are unable to look past the terrible graphics to the experience you are trying to design and test for, they may lose confidence in the project. This is an extremely common occurrence, unfortunately, especially for teams trying anything really new. In such cases, it often works better to create a completely noninteractive video “demo” of the game as it will eventually look. Even this can drain resources and distract your team from actually making the game, but it is nevertheless often an important thing to do. Such a video can also help the team stay connected and working toward the same vision, and that can be a big help on a large project.
其他原型
Other Prototypes
除了测试游戏设计理念或向利益相关者展示进度之外，您通常还会制作其他类型的游戏原型。其中一些是非交互式的，或者几乎是非交互式的，例如当您需要测试游戏世界模型深处的系统是否正常工作时。您可能需要测试游戏中的一组图形效果，或测试游戏用户界面的定性方面（其“趣味性”），例如控件上的简短动画。像这样测试游戏的各个部分是完全有效的，并且此类测试通常可以与其他游戏原型测试一起进行。如果不能，请采取与交互式游戏原型相同的方法：了解您正在测试的内容和您要问的问题以及答案将如何改变游戏，并准备好进行迭代直到感觉正确为止。
Beyond testing game design ideas or showing progress to stakeholders, there are often other kinds of prototypes you will end up making of your game. Some of them are noninteractive, or nearly so, such as when you need to test whether a system deep inside the game’s model of the world is working correctly. You may need to test a set of graphical effects in the game, or to test qualitative aspects of the game’s user interface (its “juiciness”), such as brief animations on controls. Testing parts of the game like this is perfectly valid, and such testing can often be included along with another game prototype test. If it can’t, take the same approach with these as with an interactive game prototype: know what you’re testing and the questions you’re asking and how the answers will change the game, and be prepared to iterate until it feels right.
快速行动，将其扔掉
Move Fast and Throw It Away
有一段时间，Facebook 的座右铭是“快速行动，打破常规。除非你正在打破常规，否则你的行动速度还不够快”（Taplin 2017）。当然，这并不适合每种情况或公司，但它是看待原型设计的好方法。在原型设计中，你需要快速行动，并且你需要不害怕打破常规。你需要自由地尝试可能行不通甚至可能一败涂地的事情。
For a time, Facebook’s motto was “Move fast and break things. Unless you are breaking stuff, you aren’t moving fast enough” (Taplin 2017). That doesn’t fit every situation or company, certainly, but it is a great way to look at prototyping. In prototyping, you need to move fast, and you need to not be afraid to break things. You need to feel free to try out things that may not work and that may even fail spectacularly.
这就是为什么原型与实际游戏分离如此重要的原因，正如前面提到的那样。你可以也应该从原型中学习，但尤其是对于数字原型，至关重要的是不要将原型中的任何代码复制到游戏本身。重构代码（分析代码，看看哪些代码运行良好，然后重写），但不要复制代码。一方面，你需要保持快速行动和尝试新概念的能力，另一方面，你需要保持良好的代码卫生。游戏原型的重点不是创建可重复使用的稳定代码，而是回答有关游戏设计的问题。
This is why it’s so important that, as mentioned earlier, your prototypes remain separate from your actual game. You can and should learn from what you make in your prototypes, but especially with digital prototypes, it’s vitally important not to copy over any of the code from a prototype back to the game itself. Refactor the code (analyze it, see what works well, and then rewrite it) but do not copy it. You need to maintain the ability to move fast and try out new concepts on the one hand and maintain good code hygiene on the other. The point of a game prototype is not to create reusable, stable code but to answer a question about the game design.
有效的游戏测试
Effective Playtesting
在构建游戏时，您需要测试您正在构建的体验，无论是原型形式还是实际游戏中的更完整形式。在流程的早期，您将主要与团队成员一起测试游戏或其原型。随着开发的进行，您将希望与对游戏一无所知的人（最好不认识您）快速测试它。这是一个至关重要且很少令人感到舒适的过程，您会发现对您来说清晰易懂的东西对其他人来说却晦涩难懂且令人沮丧。如果您等到自己准备好了才开始测试，那么您肯定等得太久了。
While you’re building your game, you need to test the experience you’re building, whether in prototype form or in more finished form in the actual game. Early on in the process, you will primarily be testing the game—or its prototypes—with members of the team. As development goes on, you will want to quickly test it with others who don’t know anything about the game and who, preferably, don’t know you. This is a crucial and rarely comfortable process, one where you will see things that were clear and easy to you be opaque and frustrating to others. And if you wait until you feel ready, you’re certainly waiting too long.
游戏测试的重要性
The Importance of Playtesting
你需要测试你的游戏玩法——游戏体验——这样你才能看到那些对游戏一无所知的人对游戏的反应。你需要收集关于游戏的新观点，尤其是找到那些对你来说很明显但对别人来说却不明显的领域。你想看看别人对游戏的体验。它是否引人入胜、引人入胜、有趣？它是否是玩家想要继续玩下去的体验？
You need to test your gameplay—the game’s experience—so you can see how others who know nothing about it react to it. You need to gather new points of view on the game and especially find areas that are obvious to you but not to others. You want to see how others experience the game. Is it engaging, enthralling, fun? Is it an experience players would want to continue?
你不应该假设你知道玩家会怎么看待你的游戏。如果你愿意，你可以推测新玩家会遇到哪些困难，以及他们会发现哪些显而易见且容易。然而，你犯错的次数可能比你正确的时候要多。这是游戏测试最有价值的部分之一：它向你展示了什么对你来说是完全清楚的，但对不熟悉游戏的人来说却是完全神秘的。
You should not assume that you know what players will think of your game. You can, if you want, speculate on where new players will have trouble and what they will find obvious and easy. However, you are likely to be wrong more often than you are right. This is one of the most valuable parts about playtesting: it shows you what is completely clear to you but is utterly mysterious to others not familiar with the game.
当你试图了解其他人如何体验你的游戏，尤其是看看游戏在哪些方面可以改进时，你并不是想从游戏测试中得到问题的解决方案。玩家可以并且会向你提供他们的经验和意见，但你不应该指望他们提供解决方案。他们可能会这样做（这很常见），但你需要看看他们提供的解决方案背后的原因，看看他们认为问题是什么。你对潜在问题的解决方案可能与他们的建议完全不同。
While you are trying to see how others experience your game, and especially to see where it can be improved, you are not trying to get solutions to problems from playtests. Players can and will offer you their experiences and input, but you should not expect them to offer solutions. They may do so (this is common), but you need to look behind the solution they are offering to see what they believe the problem is. Your solution to the underlying problem may be entirely different than their suggestion.
何时测试
When to Test
你应该尽快开始测试你的游戏。在你认为游戏已经准备好测试之前一定要这样做。大多数游戏设计师都觉得这是一个困难的过程，并以“它还没有准备好！”来寻求庇护。你需要抵制这种冲动，抛开你的恐惧和骄傲，把你的游戏呈现在玩家面前。
You should begin testing your game as soon as you can. Definitely do so before you think the game is ready to be tested. Most game designers find this to be a difficult process and seek refuge in “It’s not ready yet!” You need to resist this impulse, set aside your fears and your pride, and get your game in front of players.
一般来说，测试次数越多、时间越短，效果就越好。每当你对游戏做出重大改变时，都应该对其进行游戏测试。如果你发现某个地方你不确定最佳发展方向，或者距离你上次游戏测试才过去几周，也应该进行游戏测试。早期可能每两周左右测试一次；在开发后期，随着游戏的完善，每周甚至每隔几天进行测试都是值得的。
In general, more tests that are shorter are better than fewer tests that are longer. Whenever you make a significant change to the game, you should run a playtest on it. The same is true if you find an area where you’re not sure the best direction to go, or if it’s just been a few weeks since your last playtest. Early on this might amount to testing once every two weeks or so; later in development, testing every week or even every few days as you refine the game is worthwhile.
游戏测试的目标
Goals for Your Playtests
游戏测试并不是要在你的代码中发现错误（特别是如果你正在使用快速而丑陋的原型，如前所述）。它是关于测试游戏设计，看看玩家是否理解它，能否围绕它建立有效的心理模型，并发现游戏引人入胜且有趣。在早期，你需要测试游戏设计中的基本概念，看看它们是否有效且引人入胜。随着你在游戏中建立更多系统，你将需要测试玩家理解游戏的难易程度以及他们建立心理模型的效率。
Playtesting is not about finding bugs in your code (especially if you’re working with fast and ugly prototypes, as described earlier). It’s about testing the game design to see if players understand it, can make an effective mental model around it, and find the game engaging and fun. Early on you want to test basic concepts from the game design to see if they’re valid and engaging. As you build up more systems in the game, you will want to test how easily the players comprehend the game and how effectively they can build mental models of it.
你还需要寻找玩家误入歧途的地方——他们的心智模型不符合你的期望和游戏的内部模型——或者他们感到困惑、沮丧或不知道下一步该做什么的地方。这些都是让游戏变得有趣和引人入胜的极其重要的领域。
You also want to look for areas where the players go astray—where their mental models do not conform to your expectations and the game’s internal model—or where they are confused, frustrated, or have no idea what to do next. These are incredibly important areas to uncover for making the game enjoyable and engaging.
最后，游戏测试在某种程度上会转向可用性测试。玩家能否理解用户界面上呈现的内容，使用起来是否方便或麻烦？这并不是在测试整体体验本身，但测试用户界面的可用性不可避免地构成了玩家体验游戏的重要组成部分。
Finally, playtesting at some point veers into usability testing. Can the player understand what’s presented in the user interface, and is it easy or cumbersome to use? This isn’t testing the overall experience itself, but testing the usability of the user interface inevitably makes up an important part of the game as experienced by the player.
谁测试你的游戏？
Who Playtests Your Game?
在考虑谁来测试你的游戏时，首先要弄清楚的一点是，测试你的游戏的人不是你。在获取有关你的游戏可玩性的任何有用信息方面，你是最没有资格和最有偏见的人。你不可避免地会亲自测试你的游戏很多次——但这绝不能代替让别人玩它。最终，你的体验与游戏对其他人的吸引力或趣味性毫无关系。
The first thing to get out of the way in considering who playtests your game is that it’s not you. You are the least qualified and most biased person there is with regard to getting any useful information about how playable your game is. You will inevitably test your game yourself many, many times—but this is in no way a substitute for having others play it. Ultimately your experience has no bearing at all on how engaging or fun the game is to others.
你的团队成员、朋友和家人也是糟糕的测试对象。他们无法对游戏提供任何客观的看法，甚至会不自觉地竭尽全力让游戏变得有趣和易于理解，即使游戏从根本上就是有问题的。
Your team members, friends, and family members are also poor test subjects. They cannot offer anything like objective thoughts on the game, and even unconsciously they will bend over backward to try to see the game as engaging and understandable, even if it is fundamentally broken.
同时，特别是在处理早期粗糙丑陋的原型时，您可能希望让他们与您的团队保持密切联系。一些不属于您团队的密友可以帮助进行早期测试，如果他们能够忽略糟糕的替代图形等问题，并能够提供有关底层游戏的有效反馈。但请记住，一旦有人玩过游戏，他们就再也无法以相同的方式对待它。您无法“忘记”某些东西。例如，这意味着您不能让同一个人多次以新手的身份测试游戏的早期部分。
At the same time, especially when working with early, rough, ugly prototypes, you probably want to keep them very close to your team. A few confidants who aren’t on your team can help with early testing, if they are able to see past poor stand-in graphics and the like and are able to provide effective feedback about the underlying game. But keep in mind that once someone has played the game, they will never be able to approach it the same way again. You cannot “un-know” something. This means you can’t, for example, run the same person through testing the early part of your game as a naive player more than once.
拥有回头客会很有帮助，因为他们可以告诉你他们更喜欢或不喜欢什么，以及在玩过之前他们是否觉得某些东西更有意义。但不要误以为那是从未见过你的游戏的人的体验——他们可能有完全不同的看法。
Having repeat players can be helpful, as they can tell you what they like better or worse and whether something makes more sense to them after having played before. Just don’t mistake that for the experience of someone who has never seen your game before—they might have a completely different opinion.
随着游戏的发展和原型的完善（更多基于现有游戏），您将需要扩大测试人员的数量和类型。特别是，您需要将游戏玩家与您认为的目标受众进行更紧密的匹配。但是，您需要注意不要过度限制测试范围，因为您可能会错过对游戏的重要见解和机会。例如，如果您的目标市场设置得太窄或偏离真正喜欢游戏的玩家，您可能会错过会喜欢游戏的潜在玩家。您还需要注意热情的铁杆玩家。他们在测试中很有用，但他们对游戏的了解以及他们对什么是“好”游戏的坚定看法可能会给您的测试结果带来更多的噪音而不是信号。
As your game develops and your prototypes become more polished (more built on the existing game), you will want to broaden the number and types of people who are testing it. In particular, you will want to match more closely those playing it with those whom you think will be your target audience. However, you want to be careful not to limit the testing pool too much, as you can miss out on important insights and opportunities for your game. You may, for example, miss potential players who would enjoy your game if it happens that you have set your target market too narrowly or off-center from those who truly enjoy it. You will also want to be careful about enthusiastic hardcore gamers. They can be useful in testing, but their knowledge of games and their firm opinions about what makes a “good” game may introduce more noise than signal into your test results.
准备游戏测试
Preparing Your Playtest
在开始游戏测试之前，您需要清楚地了解测试的目标以及进行测试的方式。还有一些后勤问题，例如在哪里进行游戏测试。任何安静且不会分散玩家注意力的区域都可以。在某些情况下，甚至不需要非常安静；例如，游戏在繁忙的大学公共场所进行了成功的测试。
Before you begin a playtest, you need to clearly understand your goals for the test and how you will conduct it. There are logistical concerns, such as where to hold your playtest. Any quiet area where the players won’t be distracted is fine. In some cases, it doesn’t even need to be very quiet; games have been tested successfully in busy university commons, for example.
一些开发者主张使用带有单向玻璃的特殊设施来观察玩家和/或他们的面部视频，以及键盘和屏幕。这些设施很有用，但通常远远超出了您有效地测试游戏并从中获取良好数据所需的范围。不要让这种要求阻止您尽早进行频繁测试。特别是在开发早期，只需制作一个原型并进行测试。这比等待合适的设施可用要有用得多。
Some developers advocate using special facilities with one-way glass for observing the players and/or video of their faces, as well as the keyboard and screen. These are useful but are often far more than you need to effectively playtest your game and obtain good data from it. Don’t let this kind of requirement stop you from testing early and often. Especially early in development, just make a prototype and test it. This is far more useful than waiting for the right facilities to become available.
同样，一些开发者喜欢向测试人员支付报酬。这通常不是必要的，但如果您有任何道德方面的顾虑，请找到一种公平的方法。当使用大学生进行游戏测试时，提供一片免费的披萨是非常有效的。在其他情况下，提供低价值的礼品卡是合适的。测试和后续调查越复杂，您就越应该考虑提供某种补偿。
In a similar vein, some developers like to pay their testers. This is often not necessary, but if you have any ethical concerns, find a way to do what’s fair. When using university students for playtesting, offering a free slice of pizza has been extremely effective. In other cases, offering a low-value gift card is appropriate. The more involved the test and follow-up survey, the more you should consider offering some sort of compensation.
编写脚本
在游戏测试之前，为游戏测试的每个部分写一个脚本。这包括从迎接玩家到运行测试、询问任何测试后问题以及让玩家离开的所有内容。这个脚本应该详细到你在每个步骤中说的话。这会对你有很大帮助，特别是在你开始游戏测试时，这样你就可以只说你想要说的话，而不会让玩家感到紧张或分心。这也有助于你确保每次都给他们相同的背景和说明。
Before playtesting, write out a script for every part of it. This includes everything from greeting the player to running the test, asking any posttest questions, and letting the player go. This script should be detailed down to the level of what you say at each step. This will help you a lot especially as you get started on playtesting, so that you’re saying only what you intend without being nervous or distracting to the players. This also helps you be certain that you’re giving them the same context and instructions each time.
以问候和与玩家进行简短的热身讨论开始您的游戏测试脚本。确保他们感到舒适。从他们那里获取您需要的任何信息，例如他们的姓名和联系方式，如果他们愿意，还可以获取年龄和性别（但只收集以下信息你可能需要了解他们玩过的其他游戏。这样既可以校准他们的游戏体验，又可以帮助他们进入测试游戏的心态。
Start your playtest script with a greeting and a brief warm-up discussion with the player. Make sure they’re comfortable. Get whatever information you need from them, such as their name and contact information and, if they’re willing, age and gender (but gather only the information you really need). You might want to ask about other games they play both as a way to calibrate their experience and to help them get into the mindset of testing your game.
出于职业道德考虑，在开始游戏测试之前，你必须告知玩家这是对游戏的测试，而不是对他们的测试，并且他们所做的一切都是完全可以接受的。最好（并且在某些地方可能要求）向他们提供一份简短的声明并同时大声朗读。明确说明他们可以随时停止游戏并离开，并且回答有关游戏的任何问题完全是自愿的。让他们为此在表格上签字或至少口头确认这些要点会有所帮助，这样你就知道玩家已经听到（和/或阅读）了这些要点。
As a matter of professional ethics, it’s important that before you begin the playtest, you inform the player that this is a test of the game, not of them, and that whatever they do is perfectly acceptable. It’s a good idea (and may be required in some places) to give them a short statement to this effect and read it aloud at the same time. State clearly that they can stop playing and leave whenever they like and that answering any questions about the game is entirely voluntary. It helps to get them to initial a form to this effect or at least get verbal acknowledgment of these points so that you know the player has heard (and/or read) them.
玩家中途停止测试的情况很少见，但确实会发生。如果玩家在测试过程中的任何时候想停止游戏，只需停止测试：不要鼓励他们继续玩。要求他们继续玩可能会涉及道德问题。此外，他们想要停止的愿望为你的游戏提供了重要信息。
It’s rare that a player wants to stop a test in the middle, but it does happen. If a player wants to stop playing at any moment during the test, simply stop the test: do not encourage the them to keep playing. Asking them to continue can involve ethical issues. In addition, their desire to stop provides important information for you about your game.
在游戏测试之前，准备记录玩家的行为。这可能包括简单的表格供您记笔记，或者如果您有能力（并且您的测试人员同意），在测试时录制屏幕和他们的面部。许多开发人员喜欢收集游戏测试的视频以供日后审查，但请记住，这将大大增加分析测试所需的时间，并且不一定会产生更多信息，尤其是在开发早期。
In advance of the playtest, prepare to record the player’s behavior. This may include simple forms for you to take notes on, or if you are able (and if your tester agrees), video recording of both the screen and the their face while testing. Many developers like to gather video of playtests for later review, but keep in mind that this will significantly increase the time needed for analysis of the test, and it will not necessarily yield more informative results, especially early in development.
创建调查
您需要创建一份简短的后测调查问卷，让玩家填写。调查问卷设计需要一定的专业知识，因此在设计调查问卷和各个问题时要小心谨慎。创建平衡的问题很重要，其中的负面和正面回答要尽可能多。这可以帮助您避免提出诱导性问题，并尽可能保持问题不带偏见，这样玩家就不会觉得被迫给出特定意见。如果可以，请使用允许您以随机顺序呈现问题的数字/在线调查问卷，因为这有助于减少玩家答案中的偏见，并使分析更容易。
You will want to create a brief posttest survey for the players to fill out. Survey design is an area that requires some expertise, so be careful about how you construct your survey and the individual questions. It is important to create balanced questions, with as many negative as positive responses. This helps you avoid asking leading questions and keeps the questions as unbiased as possible so the players don’t feel nudged into giving a particular opinion. If you can, use digital/online surveys that allow you to present the questions in random order, as this helps reduce bias in the players’ answers as well and makes analysis easier.
您的调查应该只问几个问题，这些问题都与您的游戏测试目标和玩家的游戏体验直接相关，包括他们对游戏的理解和心理模型。虽然每次都想问游戏的各个方面——他们是否喜欢图像，音乐是否太吵，对手是太容易还是太难，等等——但不要问与当前测试目标不符的游戏方面。这样做只会让玩家陷入更多问题的泥潭，并为您提供您实际上不会使用的数据。同时，如果玩家自发地谈论游戏，那么这是需要注意的重要信息，并将其添加到要检查的问题列表中。
Your survey should ask just a few questions that all relate directly to your goal for the playtest and to the player’s experience with the game, including their comprehension and mental model of the game. While it’s tempting to ask about every aspect of the game every time—did they like the graphics, was the music too loud, were the opponents too easy or too tough, and so on—don’t ask about areas of the game that don’t match with your current goals for the test. Doing so just bogs down the player with more questions to answer and gives you data you’re not really going to use. At the same time, if a player spontaneously says something about the game, that’s important information to note and add to your list of issues to examine.
你可以使用带有数字量表的问题来量化个人意见，通常有五到七个选项。这些选项的范围可以从“非常不同意”到“非常同意”，中立，或者您可以创建类似的可能答案范围，让玩家以一种易于您评估和稍后评分的方式陈述他们的意见。确保与每个选项相关的陈述是玩家可以同意或不同意的强有力陈述。以下是一些陈述和答案量表的示例：
You can quantify individual opinions by using questions with a numeric scale, typically with five to seven alternatives. These can range from “disagree strongly” to “agree strongly,” with neutral in the middle, or you can create a similar range of possible answers that allow players to state their opinions in a way that is easy for you to assess and score later. Be sure that the statements associated with each option make strong statements with which the player can agree or disagree. The following are some examples of statements and answer scales:
1. 我可以轻松地在游戏中移动。
1. It was easy for me to move around in the game.
非常不同意—不同意—中立—同意—非常同意
Disagree Strongly—Disagree—Neutral—Agree—Agree Strongly
2.我随时了解比赛中发生的一切。
2. I understood what was going on in the game at all times.
非常不同意—不同意—中立—同意—非常同意
Disagree Strongly—Disagree—Neutral—Agree—Agree Strongly
3. 我心中有明确的目标并努力去实现。
3. I had clear goals in mind that I was trying to accomplish.
非常不同意—不同意—中立—同意—非常同意
Disagree Strongly—Disagree—Neutral—Agree—Agree Strongly
4. 我可以轻松地再玩这个游戏，而不需要复习规则。
4. I could play this again easily without reviewing the rules.
非常不同意—不同意—中立—同意—非常同意
Disagree Strongly—Disagree—Neutral—Agree—Agree Strongly
你也可以创建开放式问题，这些问题仍然可以量化，只需为玩家提供一些选择即可，其中任何或所有选择都是可以接受的。以下是一个例子：
You can also create open-ended questions that are still quantifiable by providing the player with a number of choices, any or all of which are acceptable. Here is an example:
检查与您的游戏体验相关的单词
Check the words that apply to your experience in the game
令人兴奋 Exciting |
快速地 Fast |
令人困惑 Confusing |
无聊的 Boring |
压倒 Overwhelming |
周到 Thoughtful |
战略 Strategic |
破碎的 Broken |
引人入胜 Engaging |
|
|
|
确保在选项中提供相同数量的正面、负面和中性特征，并且不要按任何特定顺序排列（例如从最好到最差）。
Be sure to provide equal numbers of positive, negative, and neutral traits among the choices and not to put them in any particular order (such as best to worst).
在某些情况下（取决于特定游戏测试的目的），你可以询问玩家对游戏或用户界面的理解程度，以及他们如何构建游戏的心理模型。你可以问一些理解问题——例如，向玩家展示游戏中的一些符号或图标，并询问这些符号的含义。你也可以问一些更注重过程的问题，这些问题的答案可以揭示他们的心理模型，比如问“假设你想找出有多少士兵可用。描述一下你要采取的步骤。”或者“这是游戏中常见场景的截图。描述一下你在这种情况下接下来会做什么，用你的手指作为鼠标指针。”这类问题通常最好以口头形式提出并录制成音频或视频，因为这可以让玩家比书面形式更自由地回答。
In some cases (depending on the purpose of a particular playtest), you can ask questions about how well the player understands the game or the user interface and how well they have been able to build their mental model of the game. You might ask comprehension questions—for example, by showing the player a few symbols or icons from the game and asking what the symbols mean. You can also ask more process-oriented questions, whose answers reveal their mental model, such as asking “Suppose you wanted to find how many soldiers are available. Describe the steps you would go through to do this.” Or “Here is a screenshot of a common moment from the game. Describe what you would do next in this situation, using your finger as your mouse pointer.” Questions like these are often best presented in oral form and recorded on audio or video, as this allows the player to respond more freely than in writing.
最后，您可以问几个简答题，让玩家以口头或书面形式回答，其中包括针对任何剩余评论的开放式问题。示例包括：
Finally, you can ask a few short-answer questions that the player answers either verbally or in written form, including an open-ended question for any remaining comments. Examples include:
请根据你的理解，简要解释一下这个游戏的规则。
Briefly explain the rules to this game as you understand them.
这场比赛有什么令你感到惊讶的？
What surprised you in this game?
您认为您应该在游戏中完成什么目标？
What did you think you were supposed to accomplish in the game?
这让你想起了什么游戏？
What games did this remind you of?
有些开发者喜欢问“你愿意为这款游戏支付多少钱？”这个问题，这有助于评估玩家对游戏的正面或负面体验，并大致估计他们对游戏的评价。但是，不要将此视为定价的可行方法。当真正付钱时，人们的实际行为往往与他们所说的愿意支付的价格有很大不同。
Some developers like to ask the question “How much would you pay for this game?” This can be useful for assessing the player’s positive or negative experience with the game and to get a vague estimate of the value they place on it. However, don’t treat this as a viable way to establish pricing. People’s actual behavior often varies significantly from what they say they would pay when it really comes down to doing so.
最终检查
在测试游戏之前，一定要测试脚本！也就是说，与其他人（甚至是团队成员）一起进行模拟游戏测试，以确保一切都合理且流畅。然后，当您准备好进行第一次游戏测试时，您将能够专注于玩家和游戏，而不会磕磕绊绊或思考需要在测试或脚本中修复的问题。
Be sure to test your script before you test your game! That is, run through a mock playtest with someone else, even a team member, just to make sure that everything makes sense and flows together well. Then, when you’re ready to conduct your first playtest, you’ll be able to focus on the player and the game and won’t be stumbling or thinking of things you need to fix in the test or script.
运行游戏测试
Running a Playtest
游戏测试不需要很长；大多数只需几分钟，一般不会超过 10 到 20 分钟。它们只需要足够你收集所需信息的时间。
Playtests do not need to be long; most last just a few minutes, and they generally don’t last more than 10 to 20 minutes. They only need long enough for you to gather the information you’re looking for.
开始时，你应该尽可能少地告诉测试人员有关游戏的信息。在某些情况下，你可能希望根据测试情况改变这一做法：告诉玩家游戏的名称或向他们展示可能的封面艺术；在其他情况下，向他们提供游戏的总体概述，甚至简短介绍一下游戏，看看这会如何影响他们对游戏的理解和享受。在其他情况下，你根本不想向他们提供任何信息——尽管告诉玩家你将在不提供更多信息的情况下继续进行，这样他们就不会感到困惑。无论你告诉他们什么，都要按照你的脚本进行，这样你就不会无意中说得太多，或者告诉某些玩家比告诉其他玩家更多。请记住，在游戏发布后，你不会在场解释游戏或游戏标题中的内部笑话等等，所以在测试开始前要限制你给玩家的信息。
As you begin, you should tell the testers as little as possible about your game. In some cases, you may want to vary this by test: tell the player the name of the game or show them potential cover artwork; in other cases, give them a broad overview or even your elevator pitch for the game to see how this affects their comprehension and enjoyment of the game. In still other cases, you will want to give them no information at all—though it helps to tell the player that you’re going to proceed without further information so they aren’t confused about it. Whatever you tell them, follow your script so you don’t inadvertently say too much or tell some players more than others. Remember that you won’t be there to explain the game or the in-joke in its title, and so on, after it’s released, so limit the information you give players before the test begins.
在游戏测试期间，请远离玩家的视线，不要在他们面前徘徊，并尽量少说话。让他们专注于游戏。玩家可能会有疑问；你应该尽可能简短地回答其中的几个问题。你需要让他们玩游戏——你需要见证他们的困惑甚至沮丧。鼓励他们继续玩下去（除非他们明显想停下来），但不要给他们任何提示或具体信息。永远不要指出屏幕上的某个东西，也不要说“试着点击左上角”或“返回上一个菜单并再次阅读”之类的话。不要解释游戏，尤其不要回应他们可能提出的任何批评。解释游戏的某些部分，或者更糟的是，为它辩护会破坏游戏测试，浪费你和玩家的时间。
During the playtest, stay out of the player’s line of sight, do not hover over them, and speak as little as possible. Let them concentrate on the game. The player may have questions; you should answer as few of them as possible and as briefly as possible. You need to let them play the game—and you need to witness their confusion and even their frustration. Encourage them to keep going (unless they clearly want to stop) without giving them any hints or specific information. Do not ever point something out on the screen or say anything like “Try clicking in the upper-left corner” or “Go back one menu and read it again.” Do not explain the game and especially do not respond to any criticism they may offer. Explaining some part of the game or, worse, being defensive about it ruins the playtest and wastes your time and the player’s as well.
写下玩家的行为、他们所说的话、他们感到困惑的地方，尤其是任何表明某种情绪反应的东西——突然明白、高兴、困惑、沮丧等等。如果玩家要求安慰，就告诉他们做得很好，继续前进。保持你的反应平淡而一般；玩家会寻找迹象来判断他们是否做得好（即使是无意识的）以及表达批评是否真的可以。你需要抛开你的恐惧、骄傲和任何防御心理，简单地接受他们给你的一切。
Write down what the player does, what they say, and places where they seem confused and especially anything that indicates some sort of emotional reaction—sudden understanding, delight, confusion, frustration, and so on. If the player asks for reassurance, just tell them they’re doing fine and to keep going. Keep your reactions bland and general; players will look for signs about whether they’re doing okay (even unconsciously) and whether voicing criticism is really all right. You need to set aside your fears, pride, and any defensiveness and simply take whatever they give you.
如果玩家完成了你希望测试完成的任务，或者他们只是停滞不前，不知道该如何继续，那么可以考虑结束游戏测试。然后，你可以问几个问题，了解他们试图做什么以及他们期望会发生什么——同样，这些问题有助于了解他们的心理模型。但从这里开始，你需要进入后测试阶段。
If the player completes what you want out of the test, or if they simply grind to a halt and can’t see how to proceed, consider the playtest over. You can then ask a few questions about what they were trying to do and what they expected to happen—again, these can be useful for understanding their mental model. But from there, you need to move into the posttest phase.
完成游戏测试
Finishing Up the Playtest
当你结束游戏测试时，询问玩家的总体想法。密切关注他们首先说了什么；他们最先想到的反应可能非常重要。还要看看他们说话的结构；他们可能会先说些好话来减轻他们想要提出的真正批评的打击。你需要敞开心扉听取所有的批评，不要拒绝任何批评或为游戏辩护。
As you wrap up the playtest, ask the players for their general thoughts. Pay close attention to what they say first; their top-of-mind reaction can be very important. Also look at the structure of what they say; they may try to say something nice first to soften the blow of the real criticism they want to offer. You need to be open to hearing all of it and not shut down any criticism or become defensive of the game.
给玩家一点时间来表达第一印象后，给他们你之前准备好的调查问卷。同样，不要说任何可能影响他们回答的内容；坚持你的剧本。给他们提供调查问卷，感谢他们付出的时间和诚实，并要求他们填写调查问卷（如果他们愿意的话）。当他们完成调查问卷后（或者如果他们拒绝填写调查问卷），询问他们对游戏有什么最终想法，再次感谢他们，然后让他们离开。
After giving the player a moment to offer any first impressions, give them the survey you prepared earlier. Again, do not say anything that might bias their answers; stick to your script. Offer them the survey, thank them for their time and honesty, and ask them to fill out the survey if they’re willing to do so. When they’re done (or if they decline to fill out the survey), ask them for any final thoughts they have on the game, thank them again, and let them go.
测试方法
Testing Methods
在游戏测试期间，您可以采用多种方法，具体取决于您的测试目标和对自己能力的信心。
There are several methods you can apply during a playtest, depending on your goals for the test and your confidence in your own abilities.
观察
许多游戏测试主要包括观察玩家在玩游戏时的行为。这可以深入了解他们如何看待和体验游戏。观察（如果需要，记录）玩家首先去哪里、他们关注或忽略哪些选项，以及他们是否在任何特定时刻按照设计师的期望行事，这些都很有启发性。您应该观察参与的迹象（密切关注屏幕、撅起嘴唇、眨眼速度变慢等）和任何类型的情绪反应。这些可能包括惊讶、高兴或沮丧的表情或表情。记录玩家感到困惑、卡住或多次重复查看相同内容（或用户界面的同一部分）的情况，也可以说明他们尝试做某事但失败的地方。
Many playtests consist mainly of observing the player’s behavior while playing the game. This can create valuable insights into how they see and experiences the game. It can be instructive to watch (and, if desired, record) where the players go first, what options they focus on or ignore, and at any given moment whether they do what you as the designer expected. You should watch for signs of engagement (closely watching the screen, pursed lips, blinking more slowly, and so on) and for emotional reactions of any type. These may include looks or expressions of surprise, delight, or frustration. Recording where the player becomes confused, gets stuck, or goes back and forth over the same content (or the same part of the user interface) several times can also illuminate where they are trying and failing to do so something.
定向体验与探索
除了观察玩家在玩游戏时的行为外，你还可以添加其他方法来了解更多有关他们的体验。你可以给他们一个特定的目标来作为剧本的一部分来完成任务（而不仅仅是让他们摆脱困惑），特别是如果玩家之前已经测试过游戏并且已经知道如何玩。或者你可以告诉他们只是探索并看看他们会去哪里——同样重要的是，他们会忽略或避免什么。
In addition to observing a player’s behavior as they play your game, there are other methods you can add to find out more about their experience. You can give them a particular goal to accomplish as part of the script (not to just get them out of being confused), especially if the player has tested the game before and already has some idea of how to play. Or you can tell them to simply explore and see where they go—and, just as importantly, what they ignore or avoid.
绿野仙踪
如果游戏测试还处于早期阶段，尤其是使用模拟材料（纸张、骰子等）进行的测试，您可以执行所谓的“绿野仙踪”协议，即您扮演运行游戏的计算机的角色（您是幕后的巫师）来观察玩家的反应。这些测试的保真度较低，这意味着您无法准确判断某人在玩早期版本时的行为，但这种类型的测试可以让您了解玩家的期望和心理模型，这可以帮助您开发游戏。
If the playtest is an early one, especially one that is being done with analog materials (paper, dice, and so on), you can do what’s called a “Wizard of Oz” protocol, where you play the part of the computer running the game (you are the wizard behind the curtain) to see how the player reacts. These tests are low-fidelity, meaning that you can’t accurately judge the behavior of someone playing a later digital version from an early version like this, but this type of test can give you insights into the player’s expectations and mental model, which can help you as you develop the game.
大声思考
在某些测试中，让玩家在整个过程中大声说出他们正在想什么、打算什么、想知道什么等等可能会有所帮助。这对他们来说可能很难，当他们陷入沉默时，他们可能经常需要被提醒，尤其是当他们试图弄清楚某件事时。一个简短的提示（“请继续说”）可以帮助他们重新开始。虽然玩家在游戏中的表现会比他们保持沉默时要低（尤其是在那些对他们的互动预算进行负担的游戏中），但大声思考可以让你对他们的内在目标和心理模型产生有用的见解。如果你在其他测试中看到玩家感到困惑或迷失方向，而你又不确定原因，这种方法会特别有用。
In some tests, it can be helpful to ask the player to speak aloud the entire time about what they are thinking, intending, wondering about, and so on. This can be difficult for them, and they may often need to be reminded as they subside into silence, especially when they’re trying to figure something out. A short prompt (“please keep talking”) can help them start back up again. While the player’s performance in the game will be lower than if they were silent (especially in games that tax their interactivity budget), thinking aloud can yield useful insights for you as to their internal goals and mental model. This method can be especially helpful if in other tests you’re seeing players become confused or lose their way, and you’re not certain why.
您可以尝试不同的方法，只要它们与您的游戏测试目标相关即可。再次强调，不要浪费时间进行不会对您开发游戏的方式产生直接影响的测试。
You can try out different methods like this, as long as they relate to the your goals for the playtest. Again, don’t waste your time with tests that aren’t going to have a direct effect on how you develop your game.
分析反馈
Analyzing Feedback
游戏测试完成后，立即花点时间写下你从中获得的任何印象。这可以包括你看到的玩家反应、需要修复的错误或如何改善游戏玩法的想法。此外，留出时间来分析你获得的数据。查看你从每个玩家的测试中得到的笔记，寻找共同的经历、主题、对他们来说最重要的事情等等。查看你调查中的定量数据，也从中寻找趋势。不要担心——当然也不要拒绝——负面评论。正如游戏测试不是对玩家能力的测试一样，负面评论也不是对你作为游戏设计师的能力的评价；游戏测试是关于游戏如何创造你想要创造的体验。从玩家的言论中学习，尤其是从负面评论中学习，让游戏变得更好。
As soon as a playtest is complete, immediately take a moment to write down any impressions you had from it. This can include player reactions you saw, bugs that need to be fixed, or ideas for how to make the gameplay better. In addition, set aside time to analyze the data you’ve obtained. Review your notes from each player’s test, looking for common experiences, themes, what was most important to them, and so on. Review the quantitative data from your survey to look for trends there, too. Don’t worry about—and certainly don’t reject—negative comments. Just as a playtest isn’t a test of the player’s ability, negative comments aren’t comments on your ability as a game designer; a playtest is all about how well the game creates the experience you are trying to create. Learn from what the players say, especially from the negative comments, to make the game better.
一个玩家可能喜欢这款游戏，而另一个玩家却觉得它难以理解。这些往往是异常值：你需要仔细寻找玩家之间共同的事件和体验。同时，不要过于追求模式，更不要试图寻找统计学上的重要的发现（除非你有一个团队为你设置、运行和分析游戏测试，每次都有几十名玩家）。你应该寻找能够帮助你改进设计并回答你关于什么有效、什么无效的问题的定向体验。
One player may love the game, while another finds it incomprehensible. Those tend to be outliers: you need to look carefully for events and experiences that are common between players. At the same time, don’t strain too much for patterns, much less try to look for statistically significant findings (unless you have a whole team to set up, run, and analyze your playtests for you, with dozens of players each time). You should be looking for directional experiences that can help you refine your design and answer questions you have about what’s working and what’s not.
这些定向体验不仅发生在玩家之间，而且发生在时间之间。观察玩家在游戏发展过程中的体验和反应。他们是否觉得相同的部分始终引人入胜？是否有一些令人困惑的区域在经过更改和进一步开发后变得令人愉快？或者，您对游戏所做的更改是否会使某些部分对玩家来说更难且更不有趣？
These directional experiences take place not only across players but across time. Watch players’ experiences and responses as the game develop. Do they find the same parts consistently engaging? Are there some areas that are confusing that after changes and more development are now enjoyable? Or, alternatively, do changes you make to the game make some parts more difficult and less enjoyable for the players?
最后，请记住，玩你游戏的人有自己的看法，但他们不是设计师。你应该认真对待他们的反馈，但更多地将其视为发现问题而不是提供解决方案。当你看到玩家看到的内容时，这可能会向你揭示游戏的重要方面，有时甚至会导致你大幅改变游戏的设计。在最近的一款海盗主题游戏中，在早期的游戏测试中，玩家发现探索部分很无聊，并表示这些部分只是战斗之间的填充物。战斗才是他们最有趣的部分。因此，设计师重新考虑了游戏，最终专注于船对船的战斗，从而制作出一款更具吸引力（也更容易实现）的游戏。大型开发商也会遇到这种情况；例如，在《模拟人生》的开发早期，团队主要将游戏视为像老式电子宠物一样的生活模拟器。然而，玩家一致表示，他们对模拟人生之间的互动以及他们在玩游戏时出现的故事更感兴趣。结果，游戏的开发和营销都发生了变化，并使其比原来取得了更大的成功。
Finally, remember that those playing your game have a valid point of view, but they are not designers. You should take their feedback seriously but look at it more as identifying problems than as offering solutions. As you see what your players are seeing, this may reveal important aspects of the game to you, sometimes even causing you to change the design of the game significantly. With a recent pirate-themed game, in early playtests, players found the exploration portions boring and said they felt like filler between combats. The combat was the fun part for them. So the designer reconsidered the game and ended up focusing on just ship-to-ship battles, making a more engaging (and more easily implementable) game as a result. This happens with large developers, too; for example, early in the development of The Sims, the team thought of the game mostly as a life simulator like an old-style Tamagotchi. However, players consistently reported being more interested in the interactions between the Sims and the stories that emerged for them as they played the game. As a result, both the development and marketing of the game changed and made it far more successful than it would have been otherwise.
生产阶段
Phases of Production
在设计和测试游戏的同时，你当然也必须构建游戏。构建游戏的方法有很多，包括直接开始制作。然而，长期的经验（以及第 11 章“团队合作”中讨论的游戏成果项目）表明，使用设计-构建-测试循环迭代构建游戏效果很好，因此，这成为了当今游戏开发的常态。非迭代方法（例如“瀑布式”开发，从规范到实现，再到测试到发布，就像瀑布上的水一样）很少在游戏开发中发挥作用，特别是如果游戏需要一定程度的创新——而几乎所有游戏都需要创新。在游戏开发中有效创新需要大量的迭代。
As you are designing and testing your game, you must, of course, also be building it. There are many ways to actually construct a game, including just jumping in and getting to it. However, long experience (and the Game Outcomes Project, discussed in Chapter 11, “Working as a Team”) shows that building a game iteratively using a design–build–test loop works well, and as a result, this is the norm in game development today. Noniterative methods (for example, “waterfall” development, where you move from specification to implementation to test to release, like water dropping down a waterfall) rarely work well in game development, especially if the game requires any degree of innovation—and almost all do. Innovating effectively in developing a game requires significant iteration.
线性世界中的迭代
Iteration in a Linear World
对于一些开发团队（和公司高管）来说，迭代设计令人感到不舒服，因为它似乎永远不会结束：你只是不断地迭代，却永远无法取得任何进展。这是一个合理的担忧，因为迭代的过程会让你感觉自己正在做当你真的一事无成时，就不要再想了。（本杰明·富兰克林曾说过，“永远不要把动作和行动混淆。”）有时那些没有直接参与开发过程的人会想，为什么需要反复尝试不同的方法；为什么不直接以简单、线性的方式构建游戏呢？当然，因为游戏开发必然是复杂而循环的，而不是复杂而线性的，所以这是行不通的。
Iterative design is uncomfortable for some development teams (and company executives) because it seems like it could never end: you just keep iterating over and over and never really get anywhere. This is a valid concern, as the process of iterating can feel like you’re doing something when you’re really getting nowhere. (As Benjamin Franklin is said to have quipped, “Never confuse motion with action.”) Sometimes those not directly involved with the development process wonder why all this iterating and trying of different approaches around is necessary; why not just go ahead and build the game in a straightforward, linear fashion? Of course, because game development is necessarily complex and looping, not complicated and linear, this doesn’t work.
设计-构建-测试周期的迭代对于游戏和任何其他尝试创造新事物的项目都至关重要。无论您的游戏概念多么令人惊叹，都无法提前知道它是否真的吸引人或需要更改的地方。了解这一点的唯一方法是设计游戏并尽快开始构建和测试。在这种情况下，不可能一次性指定和设计游戏，然后实施它，然后测试并发布它。您需要在整个过程中进行大量迭代。
Iteration through the design–build–test cycle is vital for games and for any other project where you are trying to create something new. No matter how amazing your game concept is, there is simply no way to know in advance if it’s actually engaging or where it needs to be changed. The only way to know this is to design the game and start building and testing it as quickly as possible. In situations like this, it’s not possible to specify and design the game in one pass, then implement it, and then test it and release it. You need significant iteration across the whole process.
阶段门控
但是，迭代开发游戏并不意味着一旦开始，就要全身心投入，无论迭代结果如何；每个概念都需要在不同的阶段进行审查，以查看其是否行之有效（制作原型并进行游戏测试，并取得积极结果）以及是否在市场上可行。一种有效的方法称为阶段门控。使用此方法，可以启动多个项目（和/或基于相同总体概念的多个设计）。然后定期对每个项目进行评估，以查看其是否仍然可行、进展顺利以及是否显示出足够的前景。在流程的早期，这可能很快发生，例如每两周一次，此时设计和早期原型应该根据游戏测试反馈快速迭代。
Developing your game iteratively does not, however, mean that once you start, you are wholly committed to it, wherever the iteration might lead; every concept needs to be reviewed at different stages to see if it works (prototyped and playtested with positive results) and is viable in the market. One effective method for doing this is called stage gating. With this method, multiple projects are started (and/or multiple designs based on the same overall concept). Each is then evaluated at regular intervals to see if it is still viable, is progressing well, and shows sufficient promise. Early in the process, this may happen rapidly, once every two weeks, for example, when the design and early prototypes should be iterating rapidly based on playtesting feedback.
那些没有取得足够进展和/或风险似乎太大的项目要么被退回进行重大修改，要么干脆从进一步开发中剔除。这从来都不是一件容易的事，但却是必要的：它让你把更多的资源投入到更可行的项目上，但又不会阻碍游戏开发中对新想法的探索。被剔除的项目所做的工作并没有白费。正如游戏设计师丹尼尔·库克 (Daniel Cook) 所解释的那样，这些被放入概念库中，以备日后使用：“你永远不知道旧想法的残余何时会滋养出一个强大的新项目”(Cook 2007)。
Projects that do not make sufficient progress and/or that appear to have too much risk are either sent back for significant revision or simply cut from further development. This is never an easy thing to do, but it is essential: it allows you to put more resources on projects that are more viable but without eliminating the exploration of new ideas that is necessary in game development. The work that’s done on projects that are culled out isn’t lost. As game designer Daniel Cook explains, these are put into a concept bank for possible use later: “You never know when the remnants of an old idea will nourish a strong new project” (Cook 2007).
迭代生产
在迭代开发的概念中，您可以使用多种方法来制作游戏。游戏行业中已经出现了大量基于敏捷和 Scrum 的变体，因为它们（至少大多数）非常适合迭代游戏开发。
Within the concept of iterative development, there are numerous methods you can use to make a game. A wide number of variants on Agile with scrum have become common across the games industry, as they (at least mostly) fit well with iterative game development.
Agile 和 Scrum 的一些重要特征是定期进行设计-构建-测试循环，这些循环以两到四周为一个周期（用 Agile 术语来说，每个周期都是一个冲刺），其中有较小的每日循环（由 Scrum 会议打断）以保持团队中的每个人团队协作，了解团队其他成员的工作。将这些称为游戏开发的核心循环并不夸张。
Some of the important features of Agile and scrum are regular design–build–test loops that happen on a two- to four-week schedule (each of which is a sprint, in Agile terms), within which there are smaller daily loops (punctuated by scrum meetings) to keep everyone on the team together and knowledgeable about what the rest of the team is doing. It isn’t a big stretch to call these the core loops for game development.
两到四周的冲刺循环与第 4 章“互动性和趣味性”和第 7 章“创建游戏循环”中讨论的设计师循环一致。在开发过程的早期，大部分精力应该放在规划游戏设计和开始构建游戏玩法的小型原型上。随着项目的进展，这种平衡应该转移到包括原型之外的更多实现（以及持续的测试），然后转向更多的测试。自始至终，保持相对较短（两到四周）的循环有助于使项目保持在正轨上，每个循环都有规划（基于对之前测试的评估）、设计、开发和测试的迭代。在此过程中，项目会经历多个阶段。它们在游戏行业的不同部分有不同的名称，但基本概念是相当一致的。
The two- to four-week sprint loops are consistent with the designer’s loop discussed in Chapter 4, “Interactivity and Fun,” and Chapter 7 “Creating Game Loops.” Early in the development process, most of the effort should be on mapping out the game design and beginning to build small prototypes of the gameplay. As the project moves along, this balance should shift to include more implementation beyond prototypes (along with continued testing) and then move to more testing than anything else. Throughout, it helps to keep the project on track by maintaining relatively short (two- to four-week) loops, each with an iteration of planning (based on evaluation of the previous tests), design, development, and testing. As this happens, the project goes through multiple phases. They have different names in different parts of the games industry, but the basic concepts are pretty consistent.
概念阶段
The Concept Phase
概念阶段是游戏刚刚起步的阶段。在此阶段，您将创建概念文档（请参阅第 6 章），开始整合艺术和声音风格，并开发一些小巧、快速、丑陋的原型来证明基本概念并验证核心循环。您也可以从一些主要系统文档开始。
The concept phase is where the game is just getting started. In this phase, you create the concept document (refer to Chapter 6), begin putting together an art and sound style, and develop a few small, fast, ugly prototypes to prove the basic concept and validate the core loops. You may also start on some of the primary systems documents.
概念阶段通常持续一到三个月，具体取决于您要构建的内容的概念清晰度。在此阶段期间和结束时，您应该有一个门槛：在这个门槛上，如果无法证明该概念在原型中可行，请重新开始或继续进行其他工作，但不要将任何资源投入到现有的游戏中。在概念和核心循环清晰易懂且有趣（即使形式有限）之前，继续开发概念是没有意义的。
The concept phase tends to last one to three months, depending on the clarity of the concept for what you’re trying to build. During and at the end of this phase, you should have a gate: at that gate, if the concept can’t be shown to work in a prototype, start over or go on to something else but don’t put any more resources into the game as it stands. It doesn’t make sense to keep developing a concept until the concept and core loops are clearly understood and fun (even if in limited form).
预生产阶段
The Preproduction Phase
一旦基本概念听起来合理，您就应该根据概念文档和从早期原型中学到的知识填写尽可能多的细节。您需要确保游戏是您能够使用现有资源制作的游戏。
Once the basic concept seems sound, you should fill out as many details as possible based on the concept document and what you learned from your early prototypes. Your need to make sure the game is one that you can produce with the resources you have.
预制作阶段的主要目的是确保你和你的（仍然很小的）团队了解游戏是什么、游戏成本是多少以及开发游戏需要多长时间。你将把你在整合游戏概念时学到的知识转化为其他文档——一些文档直接与游戏设计相关，一些文档则更多地与创建你设想的游戏需要多长时间有关。
The primary purpose of the preproduction phase is to make certain that you and your (still small) team understand what the game is, what it will cost, and how long it will take to develop it. You will be taking what you learned in putting together the game concept and turning that into additional documents—some related directly to game design, some more about how long it will take to create the game you have envisioned.
你需要详细记录游戏的初始功能、所有艺术资产、声音资产以及游戏发行所需的其他制作内容。毫无疑问，这些列表是错误的，因为实际需要的内容已经发生了变化到游戏真正完成时。你仍然需要尽可能完整地列出所需内容，否则你甚至无法开始评估下一个开发阶段。
You need detailed documents about the game’s starting features and all art assets, sound assets, and anything else that is made as part of production that will be needed to launch the game. These lists will be wrong, no question, in that what’s actually needed will have changed by the time the game is actually done. You still need these to be as complete an inventory as possible of what’s needed, or you can’t even begin to size up the next stage of development.
功能和资产
游戏中的功能概述来自概念文档和早期系统描述和原型。这决定了游戏发布时玩家可以使用的内容。您应该注意不要将这个列表写得太长，以避免增加游戏开发的范围和风险（从而增加无法通过阶段门槛的可能性）。但是，如果列表太短，您可能会遗漏游戏中的关键方面，而这些方面会阻碍游戏成为完全引人入胜的体验。近年来，最小可行产品( MVP ) 的概念已被用来表示游戏绝对不能缺少的功能数量和组合。MVP 概念现在在某些领域正在发生变化，变得更加面向过程，而不是关于一组特定的功能可交付成果。尽管如此，了解什么是游戏的核心，什么是不能在以后添加的，是一个重要的里程碑。幸运的是，如果您已经构建了概念、核心循环和主要系统，您应该能够相当快地判断游戏必须具备哪些功能才能发布，以及哪些功能可以在游戏的后续版本或后续发行版中出现。
The outline of features in your game comes from your concept document and early system descriptions and prototypes. This determines what will be available to the player when the game launches. You should be careful not to make this list too long to avoid increasing the scope and risk of the game’s development (and thus increasing the chance of not passing a stage gate). However, if the list is too short, you may be leaving out vital aspects of the game that keep it from being a fully engaging experience. In recent years, the concept of a minimum viable product (MVP) has been used to indicate the number and mix of features that a game absolutely cannot launch without. The MVP concept is now changing in some areas to be more process oriented rather than being about a specific set of feature deliverables. Nevertheless, knowing what is core to your game, what cannot be added later, is an important milestone to reach. Fortunately, if you have constructed your concept, core loops, and primary systems, you should be able to tell fairly quickly what the game must have to launch and what can come in a later version or later release of the game.
根据基本功能列表或 MVP，您还需要构建游戏所需所有资产的主列表。资产列表必须包含游戏每个部分（从用户界面到每个怪物、角色、森林生物或游戏中的其他内容）的每件艺术品、声音、动画等的名称、描述和任何特殊注释（大小、动画等）。创建此列表是一项艰巨的任务，但如果您从实现游戏中的系统所需创建的部分的角度来考虑它，它就会变得更容易管理。
Based on your base feature list or MVP, you also need to construct a master list of all assets to be made for the game. The asset list must have within it the name, description, and any special notes (size, animations, and so on) for every piece of art, sound, animation, and so on for every portion of the game—from the user interface to every monster, character, forest creature, or whatever else is in your game. Creating this list is a daunting task, but if you consider it in terms of the parts you need to create to implement the systems in your game, it becomes more manageable.
项目计划
当你考虑游戏所需的每个系统和每项内容时，你会更好地了解实现这些系统和内容所需的人员和技术。这时你需要开始寻求高级制作人和程序员的帮助——例如，作为阶段关卡会议的准备工作。听取他们对游戏可行性的意见，看看哪些地方需要削减，或者从他们的角度来看哪些地方风险最大。有了这些信息和他们的帮助，你就可以制定游戏的预算和项目计划。
As you consider every system and every bit of content you need for your game, you will come to a better understanding of the personnel and technology you will need to implement it. This is where you need to start bringing in help from senior producers and programmers—for example, as part of the lead-up to a stage gate meeting. Get their input on the feasibility of the game and see where it needs to be trimmed back or which areas look the riskiest from their points of view. With this information and their help, you can put together a budget and a project plan for the game.
项目计划是一种路线图，它显示了何时需要构建什么。在制定项目计划时，一些制作人喜欢逐日或逐周规划整个项目。这几乎总是浪费精力，因为游戏的开发路径会在此过程中发生根本性变化。相反，应该专注于为接下来的四周制定每日详细计划（逐日、逐项任务，针对团队中的每个人），然后以稍微低一点的详细程度（需要完成的主要任务）安排接下来的四周。这些计划应该包括足够的时间进行全面冲刺或类似的迭代模式，包括设计、实施、游戏测试、评估和规划的时间，然后进入设计的下一阶段。
The project plan is a roadmap of sorts, which shows what needs to be built when. When preparing a project plan, some producers like to plan an entire project, day by day or week by week. This is almost always wasted effort, as the game’s development path will change radically along the way. Instead, focus on creating detailed schedules on a daily level (day by day, task by task, for each person on the team) for about the next four weeks and then schedule the following four weeks at a slightly lower level of detail (major tasks that need to be accomplished). These schedules should include sufficient time for full sprints or similar iterative patterns involving time for design, implementation, playtesting, and evaluation and planning, leading back to the next phase of design.
在这个最初的详细阶段之后，计划好接下来四到八周内每周的开发重点（编程、艺术创作、新设计文档），这样你就有了一个涵盖三个月的时间表。然后逐月列出接下来三个月要完成的工作（到目前为止总共六个月），最后列出此后按季度预计要完成的工作。随着你的前进，时间表应该以同样的方式保持，逐周、逐月向前滚动。这样，你总是能非常详细地知道接下来一两个月的预期，然后对之后的几个月和几个季度的预期会越来越少。这将帮助你在项目向前推进和通过其他阶段关卡时每月或冲刺地审查你的进度。
After this initial detailed period, plan out what the development priorities (programming, art generation, new design documents) will be on a weekly level for the next four to eight weeks so you have a schedule that covers three months. Then create month-by-month lists of what will be accomplished for the next three months (giving you six months total so far), and finally make lists of what is expected to be done on a quarter-by-quarter basis thereafter. As you go forward, the schedule should be maintained in this same way, rolling forward week by week and month by month. As a result, you always know in great detail what is expected over the next month or two and then in less and less detail for the months and quarters beyond that. This will help you review your progress on a monthly or sprint basis as your project moves forward and through additional stage gates.
继续进行前期制作
预生产通常持续至少两到三个月，有时长达六个月。这是一段很长的时间，但只要您工作有效，就值得花时间在这里。所有这些都是为下一个困难阶段做准备。您要小心，不要让预生产成为迭代但没有前进的时期——不愿意致力于游戏或取消游戏。因此，您应该考虑在预生产中期和结束时至少召开一次阶段门会议。这将有助于防止您偏离轨道，同时也让团队有足够的时间在这些会议之间迭代游戏。当您在预生产结束时确定时间表和预算、概念和系统文档以及完成的资产清单时，您可以确保（并向其他人展示）您知道自己在构建什么以及构建这些内容需要哪些资源和时间。
Preproduction typically lasts at least two to three months, sometimes as long as six. That’s a long time, but it’s worth spending the time here as long as you are working effectively. All this is preparation for the next difficult stage. You want to be careful that preproduction doesn’t become a period of iterating but not moving forward—of not being willing to commit to the game or cancel it. As a result, you should consider having a stage gate meeting at least once in the middle of preproduction and once at the end. This will help keep you from drifting off track while also allowing the team sufficient time to iterate on the game in between these meetings. As you conclude preproduction with the schedule and budget, your concept and system documents, and the completed asset lists, you can be sure (and demonstrate to others) that you know what you’re building and what resources and time it will take to do so.
当然，在这段时间里，当你整理预算和艺术清单等内容时，你也会继续进行迭代开发：编写参考概念文档的系统文档，构建原型并测试这些想法，并为整个游戏奠定软件架构的雏形。当你对自己的概念、系统架构、初始功能、时间表和预算充满信心时，你就可以进入阶段关卡（以确保一切顺利，项目值得做），然后进入生产阶段。
Of course, during this time, while you are putting together budgets and art lists and the like, you are also continuing with iterative development: writing systems documents that refer to the concept document, building prototypes and testing these ideas, and laying the very beginnings of the software architecture for the game overall. When you have confidence in your concept, system architecture, initial features, schedule, and budget, you are ready to move through a stage gate (to make sure all is well and the project is worth doing) and from there into production.
生产阶段
The Production Phase
当你知道要构建什么时，就该构建它了。这听起来非常不具迭代性，但事实并非如此。到此时，你的设计基本已知，并通过原型和早期游戏测试进行了一些测试。你知道很多东西是可行的。但还有很多东西必然是未知的，直到游戏功能可以测试时才会知道。重要的是，你要在整个生产过程中保持迭代设计-构建-测试循环，随着时间的推移，越来越少地依赖原型，越来越多地依赖游戏本身进行测试继续。你无疑会发现新的想法、呈现功能的新方法，以及你想在游戏中使用但之前并不知道的潜在新系统。
When you know what to build, it’s time to build it. That sounds highly noniterative, but that is (mostly) not true. By this point, your design is mostly known and somewhat tested via prototypes and early playtesting. There is a lot that you know that works. But there is a lot that is necessarily still unknown and won’t become known until the game features can be tested. It is important that you maintain your iterative design–build–test loops throughout production, relying less and less on prototypes and more and more on the game itself for testing as time goes on. You will undoubtedly discover new ideas, new ways of presenting features, and potentially new systems that you want to have in your game but that you didn’t know about before.
新功能是可以预料到的，但重要的是避免经典的问题范围蔓延。添加“再一个”很酷的新系统或功能可能非常诱人，但您必须记住，每次这样做都会增加游戏的时间和风险。每个新增内容都应根据游戏的其余部分及其为游戏带来的影响进行全面而仔细的评估。每个内容都必须经过自己的微型概念和预生产阶段，然后才能投入生产——如果没有时间进行这些，就没有时间将其添加到游戏中。
New features are to be expected, but it’s important to avoid the classic problem scope creep. Adding “just one more” cool new system or feature can be very tempting, but you must remember that every time you do this, you add time and risk to the game. Each new addition should be fully and carefully evaluated in light of the rest of the game and in terms of what it brings to the game. Each has to undergo its own miniature concept and preproduction phases before it can be admitted into production—and if there’s not time for that, there’s not time to add it to the game.
通常情况下，新功能或系统的概念和系统设计可能已经完成，并可能伴随着快速的早期原型，但你（或团队）决定暂时将它们放在一边。这并不意味着该功能永远消失了；它会进入概念库以供以后使用，但实际上它被排除在游戏的初始版本之外。稍后再将其重新添加回来可能是有意义的。但没有必要让每个新想法都拖累你的游戏，直到你无法完成它。更好的方法是保持游戏设计的简洁、专注和原始概念的重点，并保留大量可以稍后添加的想法——在游戏获得全球性成功之后。
It should often be the case that concept and system designs for new features or systems may be completed, possibly along with a fast early prototype, only for you (or the team) to decide to leave them aside for now. That doesn’t mean the feature is gone forever; it goes in the concept bank to be used later, but it is in effect stage-gated out of the initial version of the game. It may be that adding it back in later will make sense. But it isn’t worth weighing down your game with every new idea that comes along until you simply can’t complete it. It’s far better to keep the game design clean, focused, and to the point of the original concept, with a treasure trove of ideas that can be added later—after the game is a worldwide success.
生产分析
正如第 10 章“游戏平衡实践”中提到的，在制作过程中，确定可以分析的指标非常重要，这有助于您了解项目是否进展顺利。指标可以在任务、个人和迭代里程碑级别进行跟踪。
As mentioned in Chapter 10, “Game Balance Practice,” during production, it can be important to identify metrics that you can analyze to help you know if your project is on track. Metrics can be tracked at the level of tasks, individuals, and iterative milestones.
应根据初始完成估计和实际完成时间跟踪单个任务。因此，如果团队决定某项设计或开发任务需要两天才能完成，但四天后仍未完成，则存在问题。这看似微不足道，但这就是项目出错的原因。引用软件架构师 Fred Brooks 的话，“项目怎么会晚一年？……一天一天地来”（Brooks 1995）。
Individual tasks should be tracked in terms of their initial completion estimate and how long they actually take to complete. So if the team decides that a particular design or development task should take two days to complete, and after four it’s still not complete, there’s a problem. It may seem small, but this is how projects go wrong. To quote software architect Fred Brooks, “How does a project get to be a year late? … One day at a time” (Brooks 1995).
正如可以跟踪任务的完成时间一样，团队成员对自己任务的估计也可以跟踪。必须谨慎地进行跟踪，以鼓励个人提高绩效，而不是让他们因项目估计不一致而感到羞耻。有很多方法可以跟踪这一点，包括保留初始估计与实际交付时间的历史记录，以查看出现什么样的比率。经过足够的时间获得足够的数据后，该比率既可以作为个人估计的乘数，也可以作为他们学习更好的任务估计技能的一种方式。例如，假设某人的任务经常延迟交付，在统计初始估计和实际交付日期后，您发现他们的平均延迟时间约为 20%。将来，可以将这个比率应用于他们的估计，将他们给出的完成时间乘以 1.2，以更准确地了解工作需要多长时间。然而，如果他们看到这个结果，并开始做出更有效的估算，那么很快交货时间就会更接近他们的估计，远低于 1.2 倍的时间——这意味着他们的比率将向下修正。当团队成员在任务评估和完成方面更有效时，项目就有更大的机会按计划进行。
Just as completion time for tasks can be tracked, so can team members’ estimates of their own tasks. This must be done carefully to encourage individuals to better performance not make them feel stigmatized if their project estimates are inconsistent. There are numerous ways to track this, including keeping a history of initial estimates versus actual delivery times, to see what kind of ratio emerges. After enough time has elapsed to gain sufficient data, this ratio can act both as a multiplier on an individual’s estimates and as a way for them to learn better task-estimation skills. For example, suppose someone’s tasks are often delivered late, and after tallying the initial estimates and actual delivery dates, you find that their average is to be about 20% late. In the future, this ratio can be applied to their estimates, multiplying whatever completion time they give by 1.2 to get a more accurate picture of how long the work will take. If, however, they see this result and begin to make more effective estimates, soon delivery time will be closer to their estimate and well below the 1.2x time—meaning that their ratio will be revised downward. When a team members are more effective in task estimation and completion, the project has a better chance of staying on schedule.
最后，在每个项目里程碑（例如，在每个冲刺或其他迭代结束时）时，团队成员应评估他们已经完成的工作，而不是他们计划在这段时间内完成的工作。这种对流程的反思（对上一次迭代进行非常小规模的事后分析）有助于团队了解项目状态，而不会掩盖出现的任何重大问题或风险。在这方面，使用燃尽图和类似方式可视化给定冲刺的所有相关任务的进度和剩余工作非常有用，因为它们允许团队在工作进行时和迭代完成后查看他们的绩效。
Finally, at each project milestone—for example, at the end of each sprint or other iteration—the team members should take stock of what they have accomplished as opposed to what they had planned to accomplish in that time. This level of reflection on the process—a very small postmortem on the past iteration—helps the team remain aware of their project’s status without glossing over any significant problems or risks that arise. The use of burndown charts and similar ways of visualizing the progress and remaining work on all relevant tasks for a given sprint are helpful in this regard, as they allow the team to see their performance both while the work is being done and after the iteration is complete.
Alpha 里程碑
在制作过程中，游戏最终会接近所谓的 alpha 里程碑。从某种程度上来说，这是旧游戏开发方法的遗留；传统上，alpha 标志着开发实施阶段和测试阶段之间的边界，此时所有功能都应该到位。这个里程碑仍然带有部分定义（同样，游戏行业中的定义各不相同），尽管现在假设在整个开发过程中都会进行大量测试。从另一个角度来看，这个里程碑与 Steam 上的“抢先体验”版本有些一致，玩家可以接触到正在开发的游戏，而开发人员开始获得更多有关玩家实际如何玩游戏的数据。
During production, games eventually approach what is known as an alpha milestone. In some ways, this is a holdover from old methods of developing games; traditionally, alpha marked the border between the implementation and test phases of development, when all the features were supposed to be in place. This milestone still carries some of that definition (and again, definitions differ across the games industry), though now a great deal of testing is assumed to be going on throughout development. From another point of view, this milestone is somewhat consistent with an “early access” release on Steam, where players gain exposure to a game in development, and developers begin to get far more data about how players actually play their game.
Alpha 里程碑的主要目的是设置一个检查点，证明游戏基本可玩：所有主要系统、功能和资产都已到位，并可据此评估游戏。游戏中几乎肯定仍存在重大错误，但核心循环和次要玩法都已到位，并已与团队外的人员进行了测试。如果游戏满足这些标准，它就成功通过了门槛。否则，它可能需要更多迭代工作——或者可能需要取消。
The main point of the alpha milestone is to have a checkpoint where the game is demonstrated to be largely playable: all the major systems, features, and assets are in place, and the game can be assessed based on that. There are almost certainly still major bugs in the game, but the core loops and secondary gameplay are all in place and have been tested with people outside the team. If the game meets these criteria, it passes successfully through the gate. Otherwise, it may require more iterative work—or may need to be canceled.
在 alpha 里程碑之前，团队主要专注于构建系统和功能，并通过游戏测试验证游戏玩法。通过此里程碑后，团队将主要专注于测试游戏和修复错误，而不是添加或实现新功能或系统。可能会进行少量的持续设计工作，但这应仅限于平衡系统以获得愉快的游戏体验和调整低级属性值。
Prior to the alpha milestone, the team is focused mainly on building systems and features and validating their gameplay via playtests. After this milestone is passed, the team changes to focus primarily on testing the game and fixing bugs, not adding or implementing new features or systems. Some small amount of ongoing design work may be happening, but this should be confined to balancing systems for enjoyable gameplay and tweaking low-level attribute values.
随着游戏接近稳定状态（尽管仍有漏洞），实现 alpha 里程碑所固有的审查是另一个阶段门的绝佳起点。你需要再次问自己“游戏是否值得继续前进？”考虑到投入的所有工作，答案很容易说是。但即使已经做了这么多工作，在许多方面，真正困难和昂贵的部分仍在后面。在制作后期终止游戏意味着存在一些重大问题，这些问题很可能应该早点发现，但如果游戏缺乏吸引力或趣味性，这不应该阻止你或你的团队这样做。如果你在后期取消了游戏，你应该回顾一下不仅要评估游戏中出了什么问题，还要评估过程中出了什么问题，以防止更早地发现和解决严重问题。
As the game approaches a stable state (albeit still with bugs), the review inherent in achieving the alpha milestone is a great place for another stage gate. You once again need to ask “Is the game worth continuing forward?” It’s easy to say yes, given all the work that has gone into it. But even with as much work as has been done, in many ways the really difficult and expensive parts are still to come. Killing a game late in production means there are major issues that likely should have been identified earlier, but that shouldn’t dissuade you or your team from doing so if the game just isn’t engaging or fun. If you do cancel it at a late stage, you should look back and evaluate not only what went wrong with the game but what went wrong with your process to prevent the debilitating issues from being found and addressed much earlier.
Beta 版/首次发布里程碑
一旦游戏的功能、系统和资产到位，团队的注意力几乎全部转向平衡、修复错误和完善游戏。这种完善的一些方面包括对不同游戏系统部分属性值的细微更改。例如，一种生物可能比另一种生物跑得稍快，从而改变游戏该部分的平衡。完善的另一个主要方面是修复艺术、动画，尤其是用户界面的部分。让 UI 更加丰富不会直接影响游戏玩法，但它确实会让游戏更具吸引力和吸引力。
Once the game’s features, systems, and assets are in place, the team’s focus turns almost entirely to balancing, bug fixing, and polishing the game. Some aspects of this polishing include small changes to attribute values deep in different game systems’ parts. For example, one creature may run just slightly faster than another, altering the balance in that part of the game. Another major aspect of polishing is fixing up art, animations, and especially portions of the user interface. Giving the UI more juice doesn’t affect the gameplay directly, but it does make the game more attractive and engaging.
随着发现的重大错误越来越少，游戏也越来越稳定，玩家测试将继续进行，以确保游戏仍然有趣且引人入胜。当达到此状态时，游戏就进入了测试阶段。
As fewer and fewer major bugs are found and the game is stable, testing with players continues to ensure that the game remains fun and engaging. As this state is reached, the game comes to the beta milestone.
测试里程碑曾经是当游戏或其他产品在内部被判定为可用且足够稳定，可以向公众展示时。如今，我们经常在流程的早期就向玩家展示游戏。测试现在通常更多地与测试盈利能力（对于免费游戏）、部署基础设施、内容交付网络以及游戏发布的其他辅助方面有关。特别是在免费游戏中，这也是游戏的第一个重要指标，即有多少人玩这款游戏，特别是在第一天、一周和一个月后有多少人回归。如果这些指标不能表明这款游戏能够取得商业成功，那么它甚至可能在这个后期阶段被取消（大型工作室发生这种情况的几率比你想象的要高）。
The beta milestone used to be when a game or another product was judged internally to be usable and stable enough to be shown to the general public. These days, we often expose games to players much earlier in the process. Beta now often has more to do with testing monetization (for free-to-play games), deployment infrastructure, content delivery networks, and other ancillary aspects of releasing the game. In free-to-play games in particular, this is also when the first significant metrics for the game are looked at, in terms of how many people play the game and especially how many return to it after the first day, week, and month. If these metrics don’t show that the game can be commercially successful, then it may be canceled even at this late stage (which happens at large studios more than you might expect).
商业发布
在完成设计、开发和测试游戏的所有工作后，您终于迎来了向公众全面发布的一天。实现这一里程碑需要很长时间和大量艰苦的工作。现在，您的游戏已上线并可供全世界使用。这是一个值得珍惜的时刻。从某种程度上来说，这也是游戏不再只属于您的时候，因为玩家很快就会开始将其视为自己的游戏。您现在需要更多地关注玩家的想法以及分析结果，以便确定下一步要添加或修复的优先顺序。
After all the work that has gone into designing, developing, and testing your game, you finally come to the day when it is to be fully released to the public. Reaching this milestone takes a long time and a lot of difficult work. You now have a game up and running and available in the world. This is a moment to savor. This is also when the game in some ways ceases to be only yours, as the players will quickly begin to see it as theirs, too. You now need to turn your attention more to what the players think and what your analytics tell you so that you can prioritize what to add or fix next.
完成你的游戏
Finishing Your Game
令人惊讶的是，许多开始制作游戏的人从未完成过游戏。从你开始思考游戏的那一刻起，以及在你设计、开发和测试游戏的整个过程中，你必须做出并坚持完成游戏的个人承诺——或者，如果有必要，取消游戏并重新开始。很久以前，我听过一句话，这句话一直萦绕在我的心头：“任何完成的东西都比任何未完成的东西好。”这包括你未完成的游戏。任何在售或可以在网站上免费玩的游戏，无论功能多么有限或制作多么糟糕，都比你脑子里超级棒的想法要好——只是因为那个游戏存在而你的想法不存在。如果你想让你的游戏很棒，你就必须让它成为现实。而让它成为现实的唯一方法是设计它、开发它，并最终完成它。
A surprising number of people who start making a game never complete it. From the moment you start musing about your game and throughout all the time you’re designing, developing, and testing it, you must make and keep a personal commitment to finishing it—or, if necessary, canceling it and starting over. A long time ago I heard a saying that has stuck with me: “Anything finished is better than everything unfinished.” This includes your unfinished game. Any game that’s for sale or that can be played for free on a website, no matter how limited and terribly made, is better than the super-amazing idea you have in your head—just because that game exists and your idea does not. If you want your game to be awesome, you have to make it real. And the only way to make it real is to design it, develop it, and ultimately finish it.
游戏开发最困难的部分并不是在早期的概念阶段。创意很简单，数量众多，而且（令许多缺乏经验的设计师感到沮丧的是）它们本身毫无价值。提出完整的游戏概念可能会消耗您的创造力，但这个过程的这一部分在很多方面都是最自由和最有趣的。困难时期出现在开发后期，那时您可能认为您快完成了。然后，您与从未见过游戏（或您）的人一起对整个游戏进行第一次大型游戏测试……最终您会看到一页又一页的错误、批评、困惑点以及损坏和不平衡的系统。这可能非常令人沮丧。您需要度过这段时间，并关注完成游戏的目标。这时，拥有一个有凝聚力的概念和团队才能真正获得回报。您需要长时间工作来解决看似微不足道的问题，而这些修复加起来会使游戏可供其他人完全玩。
The most difficult parts of game development are not in the early conceptual stages. Ideas are easy, numerous, and (much to the dismay of many inexperienced designers) not worth anything on their own. Coming up with a full game concept may tax your creativity, but this part of the process is in many ways the most free and fun. The difficult times arise late in development, when you might think you’re almost done. Then you do your first big playtest of the full game with people who have never seen it (or you) before…and you end up with pages and pages of bugs, criticism, points of confusion, and broken and unbalanced systems. This can be extremely disheartening. You need to push through these times and keep your eye on the goal of finishing the game. This is where having a cohesive concept and team really pay off. You will need to work long hours at fixing seemingly small problems, and these fixes all add up to making the game fully playable by others.
现在，“完成”并不意味着“完美”。没有一款游戏或任何其他创意作品在创作者的眼中是真正完整的，更不用说完美了！但尽管这很难做到，你还是需要设计、开发和让其他人测试你的游戏。你需要经历开发游戏的艰难时期，看到它未能通过游戏测试和阶段门槛，并一次又一次地完善它，直到你最终拥有真正的东西。
Now, “finish” does not mean “make perfect.” No game—or any other creative work—will ever be truly complete in its creator’s eyes, much less perfect! But as difficult as it is to do, you need to do the work of designing, developing, and letting others playtest your game. You need to go through the difficult times of developing it, seeing it fail playtests and stage gates, and being refined again and again until you finally have something real.
只要你能够尽快地发布游戏，只要你的游戏具有可玩性，吸引玩家并让玩家感到兴奋，你就应该发布游戏，然后放手。你几乎肯定会认为游戏还没有准备好发布。你可能会害怕看到游戏最终走向大众。你可能会想，在为游戏努力了这么长时间之后，怎么会现在就结束呢。一旦你进入了漫长的开发过程，游戏居然能完成似乎很奇怪。肯定还得先解决一些 bug 吧？当你到了这个地步，当游戏测试进展顺利时，即使你确定还有更多事情要做，也该放手了。
As soon as you possibly can—as soon as your game is playable and engaging and exciting to players—you need to release it and let it go. You will almost certainly think the game is not ready to be released yet. You may fear finally seeing the game go into the wild. And you might wonder how it can just be over now, after you have worked so hard for so long on it. Once you are into the long haul of development, it can seem strange that the game could be finished. Surely there must be a few more bugs to work on first? When you get to this point, when the playtests are going well, even though you’re sure there’s more to do, it’s time to let it go.
幸运的是，如今的技术使得在很多情况下，游戏发布后仍可继续开发。但要想真正了解哪些地方需要改进，你仍然必须先完成游戏，然后才能真正了解除了一小部分游戏测试者之外的其他人对游戏的看法。
Fortunately, today’s technology makes it possible in many cases to continue working on the game after you release it. But to be able to really learn what needs to be refined, you still have to finish the game first—and then let it go to truly see what others beyond a small group of playtesters think of it.
将此视为最外层的设计师循环：您将从发布游戏并观察其在市场上的表现中学到其他方式无法学到的经验教训。一旦您经历了整个过程，从早期令人兴奋的概念到开发困难的低谷，再到您的游戏“问世”的那一刻，您最终将真正成为一名游戏设计师。
Consider this to be the outermost designer’s loop: you will learn lessons from releasing a game and seeing it perform in the market that you could not learn any other way. Once you have gone through the entire process, from the early exciting concept through the valley of the difficulties of development, and finally to the point where your game is “out there,” you will finally, truly be a game designer.
概括
Summary
要想让游戏成为现实，除了游戏设计之外，还需要做大量工作。首先，你必须能够在各种场合有效地传达你的想法，从电梯到会议室。你需要能够将你的兴奋之情传达给潜在的资助者、媒体联系人和团队成员。在验证概念时，你还需要能够倾听对你的游戏设计的批评。
Making your game real requires a great deal of work beyond game design. To start, you must be able to communicate your idea effectively, in settings ranging from an elevator to a board room. You need to be able to pass along your excitement to potential funders, media contacts, and team members. You also need to be able to listen for criticism of your game design as you validate the concept.
您必须认识到迭代开发的重要性，包括快速原型设计、频繁游戏测试和严格的阶段控制。再加上对游戏开发阶段（早期概念阶段、预生产、生产、alpha 和 beta）的了解，将帮助您以快速但可持续的速度开发游戏。
You have to appreciate the importance of iterative development, including fast prototyping, frequent playtesting, and stringent stage-gating. This plus an understanding of the phases of game development—the early concept stage, preproduction, production, alpha, and beta—will help you develop your game at a rapid but sustainable pace.
最后，你需要认识到真正完成游戏的难度和本质。绝大多数优秀的游戏创意从未被制作成原型。即便制作了原型，大多数也从未真正完成。要让其他玩家能够以最终的、经过打磨的形式接触到你的游戏，这项工作极其困难，不应低估。同时，完成这项工作也是你提升经验、技能、理解力和游戏设计师职业生涯的方式。
Finally, you need to recognize the difficulty and essential nature of actually finishing your game. The vast majority of good ideas for games never get prototyped. Of those that do, most never actually get finished. The work to getting over that line where other players now have access to your game in final, polished form is extremely difficult and should not be underestimated. At the same time, doing the work is how you advance your experience, skill, understanding, and career as a game designer.
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指数
INDEX
数字
Numbers
5G 网络, 34
5G networking, 34
一个
A
吸收，134
absorption, 134
acquisition of players, 350–351
动作游戏，197
action games, 197
action/feedback interactivity, 138–139
即时游戏玩法，141
moment-to-moment gameplay, 141
现在时动作，139
present-tense action, 139
反射性注意力，139
reflexive attention, 139
stress and reward of fast action, 139–141
行动社会动机，201
action-social motivations, 201
积极反对者，109
active opponents, 109
广告支持的游戏，211
ad-supported games, 211
Adventure Capitalist, 247, 325
冒险游戏，197
adventure games, 197
aesthetics, MDA (Mechanics-Dynamics-Aesthetics) framework, 92–93
可供性，131
affordance, 131
代理机构（玩家），100
agency (player), 100
比赛，91
agon games, 91
宜人性，202
agreeableness, 202
alea游戏，91
alea games, 91
亚历山大，克里斯托弗，32 , 46 – 47 , 60 , 81
Alexander, Christopher, 32, 46–47, 60, 81
模拟原型，387
analog prototypes, 387
分析驱动设计，301
analytics-driven design, 301
分析设计，301
analytics-informed design, 301
警告，301
cautions about, 301
玩家行为数据
player behavior data
acquisition and first experience, 350–351
社区, 354
community, 354
球员信息，收集，349
player information, collecting, 349
sample size and information distortion, 301–302
分析
analytics
analysis from systems view, 182–184
分析驱动设计，301
analytics-driven design, 301
分析设计，301
analytics-informed design, 301
警告，301
cautions about, 301
球员信息，收集，349
player information, collecting, 349
sample size and information distortion, 301–302
假设驱动分析，17
hypothesis-driven analysis, 17
分析驱动设计，301
analytics-driven design, 301
分析设计，301
analytics-informed design, 301
反室，100
Antichamber, 100
Apache OpenOffice，261
Apache OpenOffice, 261
APs (associate producers), 366–367
architectural game elements, 111–112
内容和系统，112
content and systems, 112
平衡，114
balancing, 114
architecture of companies, 364–365
亚里士多德，22、46、60、96
arousal, 129–130, 132–133, 148
ARPDAU（每日活跃用户平均收入），352
ARPDAU (average revenue per daily active user), 352
ARPU（每用户平均收入），352
ARPU (average revenue per user), 352
电脑游戏设计艺术（克劳福德），118
The Art of Computer Game Design (Crawford), 118
关节距离，125
articulatory distance, 125
助理游戏设计师，368
associate game designers, 368
associate producers (APs), 366–367
原子部分，268。另请参阅游戏部分
atomic parts, 268. See also game parts
注意力
attention
balancing progression with, 340–341
行政人员，141
executive, 141
反思性注意力，147
reflective attention, 147
反身，139
reflexive, 139
属性
attributes
first-order attributes, 271–272
航海游戏示例，275
nautical game example, 275
second-order attributes, 271–272
third-order attributes, 271–272
audience, target, 200–204. See also players
环境背景，203
environmental context, 203
Australia, introduction of rabbits into, 25–26
头像，97
avatars, 97
每日活跃用户平均收入 (ARPDAU) 352
average revenue per daily active user (ARPDAU), 352
每用户平均收入（ARPU），352
average revenue per user (ARPU), 352
乙
B
平衡。请参阅游戏平衡
balance. See game balance
巴利里奥，28岁
Balileo, 28
基本情绪，147
basic emotions, 147
基本进展比率，324
basic progression ratio, 324
行为消退，130
behavior extinction, 130
定义，94
definition of, 94
数量，282
amount of, 282
nautical game example, 283–285
玩家期望，以及281
player expectations and, 281
时机，282
timing of, 282
generic, modular behaviors, 277–278
game behaviors and feedback, 125–126
有意选择，127
intentional choices, 127
player behaviors and cognitive load, 125–126, 159
当地行动，277
local action, 277
玩家行为数据
player behavior data
acquisition and first experience, 350–351
社区, 354
community, 354
球员信息，收集，349
player information, collecting, 349
钟形曲线，306
bell curve, 306
归属感（马斯洛需求层次理论），149
belonging (Maslow’s hierarchy of needs), 149
好处
benefits
成本效益曲线
cost-benefit curves
线性曲线，323
linear curves, 323
NAP（近算术级数）曲线，331
NAP (near-arithmetic progression) curves, 331
piecewise linear curves, 329–331
多项式曲线，324
polynomial curves, 324
cost/benefit definitions, 320–321
附属资源，322
subsidiary resources, 322
伯努利过程，309
Bernoulli process, 309
卡尔·冯·贝塔朗菲，30岁
Bertalanffy, Karl von, 30
beta/第一个版本里程碑，406
beta/first release milestone, 406
生化奇兵, 153
Bioshock, 153
布莱克·威廉30 岁
Blake, William, 30
“盲盒”，307
“blind boxes,” 307
警告，192
cautions, 192
限制，191
constraints, 191
策展，190
curation, 190
定义，188
definition of, 188
轰隆轰隆, 231
Boomshine, 231
增压发动机
boosting engines
布斯，杰森，196
Booth, Jason, 196
边界
boundaries
乔治·博克斯，201
Box, George, 201
广度（概念文件），215
breadth (concept document), 215
布鲁克斯，弗雷德，404
Brooks, Fred, 404
budget, interactivity, 161–163
燃尽图，405
burndown charts, 405
倦怠，130
burnout, 130
碳
C
卡普拉·弗里乔夫（32岁）
Capra, Fritjof, 32
CAS (complex adaptive systems), 31–32
卡特穆尔，编辑，184
Catmull, Ed, 184
causality, upward/downward, 80–81
causation versus correlation, 18–19
CCO（首席创意官），365
CCOs (chief creative officers), 365
CD（创意总监），365
CDs (creative directors), 365
CEO（首席执行官），364
CEOs (chief executive officers), 364
首席财务官（CFO），364
CFOs (chief financial officers), 364
迈克尔·查宾（Michael Chabin）50 岁
Chabin, Michael, 50
钱伯斯，约翰，34岁
Chambers, John, 34
改变概率，307
changing probabilities, 307
首席创意官 (CCO)，365
chief creative officers (CCOs), 365
首席执行官（CEO），364
chief executive officers (CEOs), 364
首席财务官（CFO），364
chief financial officers (CFOs), 364
首席运营官（COO），364
chief operating officers (COOs), 364
首席技术官 (CTO)，365
chief technical officers (CTOs), 365
“选择你自己的冒险”书籍，105
“choose your own adventure” books, 105
思科系统公司，34
Cisco Systems, 34
文明，114
Civilization, 114
“眼镜蛇效应”，19
“cobra effect,” 19
cognitive interactivity, 141–143
cognitive load, player behaviors and, 125–126, 159
cognitive threshold diagram, 159–161
收集玩家信息，349
collecting player information, 349
战斗系统，256
combat systems, 256
商业发布，406
commercial release, 406
社区分析, 354
community analytics, 354
竞争，145
competition, 145
互补作用，146
complementary roles, 146
complex adaptive systems (CAS), 31–32
复杂资源，222
complex resources, 222
可理解的游戏系统，175
comprehensible game systems, 175
电脑游戏开发者大会，118
Computer Game Developer’s Conference, 118
概念
concept
蓝天设计
blue-sky design
警告，192
cautions, 192
限制，191
constraints, 191
策展，190
curation, 190
定义，188
definition of, 188
概念银行，400
concept banks, 400
concept statement, 195–196, 381–382
深度和广度，215
depth and breadth, 215
优雅，215
elegance, 215
游戏+玩家系统，214
game+player system, 214
需要考虑的问题，216
questions to consider, 216
主题，214
themes, 214
USPs (unique selling points), 204–205
工作标题，195
working title, 195
定义，188
definition of, 188
概念银行，400
concept banks, 400
concept statement, 195–196, 381–382
产品描述，206
product description, 206
游戏世界小说，210
game world fiction, 210
范围，212
scope, 212
technology, tools, and platforms, 211–212
visual and audio style, 209–210
环境背景，203
environmental context, 203
USPs (unique selling points), 204–205
工作标题，195
working title, 195
概念阶段（游戏制作），401
concept phase (game production), 401
concept statement, 195–196, 381–382
连接器, 54
connectors, 54
尽责，202
conscientiousness, 202
一致性，175
consistency, 175
约束、蓝天设计和191
constraints, blue-sky design and, 191
建筑系统，257
construction systems, 257
内容，112
content, 112
平衡，114
balancing, 114
推介背景
contexts for pitches
贡献（马斯洛需求层次理论），149
contribution (Maslow’s hierarchy of needs), 149
COO（首席运营官），364
COOs (chief operating officers), 364
Copernican model of solar system, 28–29
核心循环，127、156 – 157、226 – 227
core loops, 127, 156–157, 226–227
detailed design (concept document), 212–213
线性曲线，323
linear curves, 323
NAP（近算术级数）曲线，331
NAP (near-arithmetic progression) curves, 331
piecewise linear curves, 329–331
多项式曲线，324
polynomial curves, 324
格雷格·科斯蒂基安（Greg Costikyan）92 岁
Costikyan, Greg, 92
成本
costs
成本效益曲线
cost-benefit curves
线性曲线，323
linear curves, 323
NAP（近算术级数）曲线，331
NAP (near-arithmetic progression) curves, 331
piecewise linear curves, 329–331
多项式曲线，324
polynomial curves, 324
cost/benefit definitions, 320–321
附属资源，322
subsidiary resources, 322
decoupling from value, 336–338
Crawford, Chris, 91–92, 118, 123
创意总监 (CD)，365
creative directors (CDs), 365
Csikszentmihalyi，Mihaly，153
Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly, 153
CTO（首席技术官），365
CTOs (chief technical officers), 365
cultural interactivity, 152–153
曲线。参见进展和功率曲线
curves. See progression and power curves
cyber-前缀，31
cyber- prefix, 31
控制论，31
cybernetics, 31
控制论（维纳），31
Cybernetics (Wiener), 31
每日活跃用户 (DAU)，351
daily active users (DAU), 351
Dark Age of Camelot, 249–250, 313
黑暗之魂，297
Dark Souls, 297
DAU（每日活跃用户），351
DAU (daily active users), 351
德蒙迪系统（牛顿），29
De Mundi Systemate (Newton), 29
荒野之地, 252
Deadlands, 252
僵局，238
deadlock, 238
decisions, meaningful, 107–108
decoupling cost from value, 336–338
奉献，134
dedication, 134
可交付成果, 262
deliverables, 262
深度
depth
概念文件，215
concept document, 215
设计过程
design process
系统循环，180
systemic loops, 180
thematic architecture of, 178–180
设计工具，260
design tools, 260
rapid prototyping tools, 260–261
电子表格, 261
spreadsheets, 261
designer-based balancing, 297–298
designer’s loop, 5, 128, 232–233
详细设计（概念文件），212
detailed design (concept document), 212
互动性，213
interactivity, 213
叙事和主要系统，213
narrative and main systems, 213
目标和进展，213
objectives and progression, 213
发展
development
开发团队
development teams
游戏设计师，368
game designers, 368
组织结构图，366
organization chart, 366
其他团队成员，372
other team members, 372
QA (quality assurance), 370–371
用户界面/用户体验，369
UI/UX, 369
开发团队
development teams
游戏设计师，368
game designers, 368
组织结构图，366
organization chart, 366
其他团队成员，372
other team members, 372
QA (quality assurance), 370–371
用户界面/用户体验，369
UI/UX, 369
暗黑破坏神 II , 247
Diablo II, 247
The Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (Galileo), 28–29
《金刚经》第 87
“Diamond Sutra,” 87
数字游戏，176
digital games, 176
数字原型，387
digital prototypes, 387
距离
distance
发音, 125
articulatory, 125
语义, 125
semantic, 125
DLC（可下载内容），211
DLC (downloadable content), 211
文档, 261
documentation, 261
深度和广度，215
depth and breadth, 215
优雅，215
elegance, 215
游戏+玩家系统，214
game+player system, 214
需要考虑的问题，216
questions to consider, 216
主题，214
themes, 214
USPs (unique selling points), 204–205
工作标题，195
working title, 195
电子表格文档, 261 , 268 – 269 , 289 – 291
spreadsheet documentation, 261, 268–269, 289–291
系统设计文档, 262
system design documents, 262
系统技术设计文档, 263
system technical design documents, 263
主导策略，239
dominant strategy, 239
多巴胺，135
dopamine, 135
可下载内容 (DLC), 211
downloadable content (DLC), 211
动力引擎，236
dynamic engines, 236
dynamics, MDA (Mechanics-Dynamics-Aesthetics) framework, 92–93
埃
E
ecological imbalances, 250–251
economic system balance, 341–342
construction of game economy, 344–345
通货膨胀，342
inflation, 342
货币，243
currencies, 243
economic system balance, 341–342
construction of game economy, 344–347
通货膨胀，342
inflation, 342
停滞，342
stagnation, 342
发动机经济，243
economies with engines, 243
unfolding complexity in, 242–243
eCPU（每用户有效成本），353
eCPU (effective cost per user), 353
每位用户的有效成本，353
effective cost per user, 353
优雅，83 – 86，167 – 168，176，215
elegance, 83–86, 167–168, 176, 215
埃伦诺，杰夫，103
Ellenor, Geoff, 103
情感目标，111
emotional goals, 111
emotional interactivity, 147–152
挑战，151
challenges of, 151
上下文，150
context, 150
无尽的奔跑者，140
endless runners, 140
内生意义，104
endogenous meaning, 104
内啡肽，136
endorphins, 136
参与并保持参与，134
becoming and staying engaged, 134
定义，134
definition of, 134
interactive engagement, 158–159
neurochemical engagement, 135–137
心理参与，137
psychological engagement, 137
引擎构建游戏，237
engine-building games, 237
增压发动机
boosting engines
发动机经济，243
economies with engines, 243
引擎构建游戏，237
engine-building games, 237
入口，207
entrances, 207
环境背景，203
environmental context, 203
EP（执行制片人），365
EPs (executive producers), 365
欧几里得，28岁
Euclid, 28
EVE 在线, 99
EVE Online, 99
evolution of game design, 117–119
Excel，261
Excel, 261
行政注意力，141
executive attention, 141
执行制片人 (EP)，365
executive producers (EPs), 365
experience points (XP), 62, 252
明确目标，109
explicit goals, 109
exploration in playtesting, 397–398
可扩展性，176
extensibility, 176
行为消退，130
extinction of behaviors, 130
外向性，202
extraversion, 202
F
F
法默，兰迪，342
Farmer, Randy, 342
法姆维尔146
Farmville, 146
faucet/drain economies, 55–57, 223
FBS（功能-行为-结构）框架，94
FBS (Function-Behavior-Structure) framework, 94
action/feedback interactivity, 138–139
即时游戏玩法，141
moment-to-moment gameplay, 141
现在时动作，139
present-tense action, 139
反射性注意力，139
reflexive attention, 139
stress and reward of fast action, 139–141
数量，282
amount of, 282
nautical game example, 283–285
玩家期望，以及281
player expectations and, 281
playtesting feedback, analyzing, 398–399
时机，282
timing of, 282
《第五项修炼》（圣吉），31
The Fifth Discipline (Senge), 31
第五代（5G）网络，34
fifth generation (5G) networking, 34
最终检查，396
final checks, 396
“finding the fun,” 174–175, 386
精加工
finishing
游戏测试，397
playtests, 397
fireflies, as chaotic system, 69–70
看火人，144
Firewatch, 144
first-order attributes, 271–272
first-time user experience (FTUE), 350–351
五因素模型，202
Five Factor Model, 202
五行312
five processes (Wu Xing), 312
流动
flow
各部分之间，54
between parts, 54
荣耀战魂178
For Honor, 178
约翰·福雷斯特31岁
Forrester, John, 31
框架
frameworks
FBS（功能-行为-结构），94
FBS (Function-Behavior-Structure), 94
MDA (Mechanics-Dynamics-Aesthetics), 92–93
其他框架，95
other frameworks, 95
SBF（结构-行为-功能），94
SBF (Structure-Behavior-Function), 94
摩擦，239
friction, 239
FTUE (first-time user experience), 350–351
富勒·巴克敏斯特43岁
Fuller, Buckminster, 43
全栈程序员，370
full-stack programmers, 370
趣味，163
fun, 163
特征，164
characteristics of, 164
“finding the fun,” 174–175, 386
negative affect in gameplay, 166–167
函数，定义，94
function, definition of, 94
游戏的功能方面，102
functional aspects of games, 102
函数定义, 94
definition of function, 94
功能元素作为机器，103
functional elements as machines, 103
internal model of reality, 103–106
Dwarf Fortress example, 105–106
内生意义，104
endogenous meaning, 104
opposition and conflict, 108–109
玩家的心理模型，107
player’s mental model, 107
possibilities for play, 102–103
功能-行为-结构（FBS）框架，94
Function-Behavior-Structure (FBS) framework, 94
格
G
game analysis, systems view of, 182–184
分析天平，348
analytical balance, 348
分析驱动设计，301
analytics-driven design, 301
分析设计，301
analytics-informed design, 301
警告，301
cautions about, 301
sample size and information distortion, 301–302
balancing loops, 61–62, 220–221
内容和系统，114
content and systems, 114
定义，296
definition of, 296
designer-based balancing, 297–298
economic system balance, 341–342
construction of game economy, 344–347
通货膨胀，342
inflation, 342
停滞，342
stagnation, 342
不及物动词平衡，316
intransitive balance, 316
decoupling cost from value, 336–338
玩家行为数据
player behavior data
acquisition and first experience, 350–351
社区, 354
community, 354
球员信息，收集，349
player information, collecting, 349
基于玩家的平衡，298
player-based balancing, 298
可能性
probability
改变概率，307
changing probabilities, 307
定义，304
definition of, 304
likely occurance of unlikely events, 310–311
probability distributions, 305–307
独立事件和关联事件305
separate and linked events, 305
进展和功率曲线，320
progression and power curves, 320
cost/benefit definitions, 320–323
线性曲线，323
linear curves, 323
NAP（近算术级数）曲线，331
NAP (near-arithmetic progression) curves, 331
piecewise linear curves, 329–331
多项式曲线，324
polynomial curves, 324
progression balancing, 338–339
二次进展，341
secondary progression, 341
传递平衡
transitive balance
游戏概念
game concept
蓝天设计
blue-sky design
警告，192
cautions, 192
限制，191
constraints, 191
策展，190
curation, 190
定义，188
definition of, 188
概念银行，400
concept banks, 400
concept statement, 195–196, 381–382
深度和广度，215
depth and breadth, 215
优雅，215
elegance, 215
游戏+玩家系统，214
game+player system, 214
需要考虑的问题，216
questions to consider, 216
主题，214
themes, 214
USPs (unique selling points), 204–205
工作标题，195
working title, 195
定义，188
definition of, 188
game definitions, 90–92, 95–96
游戏设计理论，119
game design theory, 119
与博弈论相比，119
compared to game theory, 119
游戏设计师，171
game designers, 171
设计过程
design process
系统循环，180
systemic loops, 180
thematic architecture of, 178–180
“finding the fun,” 174–175, 386
入门，172
getting started, 172
发明家，174
inventors, 174
了解自己的优势和劣势，173
knowing your strengths and weaknesses, 173
讲故事的人，173
storytellers, 173
团队合作，356
teamwork, 356
平衡个人需求，363
balancing with needs of individuals, 363
development team organization, 366–372
practices of successful teams, 356–357, 360–361
团队规模，372
team size, 372
玩具制造商，174
toymakers, 174
游戏框架
game frameworks
FBS（功能-行为-结构），94
FBS (Function-Behavior-Structure), 94
MDA (Mechanics-Dynamics-Aesthetics), 92–93
其他框架，95
other frameworks, 95
SBF（结构-行为-功能），94
SBF (Structure-Behavior-Function), 94
游戏类型。参见类型
game genres. See genre(s)
游戏循环。请参阅循环
game loops. See loops
战争游戏，146
Game of War, 146
游戏成果项目
Game Outcomes Project
个人需求，363
needs of individuals, 363
practices of successful teams, 356–357, 360–361
first-order attributes, 271–272
second-order attributes, 271–272
third-order attributes, 271–272
generic, modular behaviors, 277–278
当地行动，277
local action, 277
文档
documentation for
内部状态，270
internal state of, 270
航海游戏示例
nautical game example
属性，275
attributes, 275
detail design process, 275–276
需要考虑的问题，291
questions to consider, 291
简单/原子部分，268
simple/atomic parts, 268
游戏制作，399
game production, 399
概念阶段，401
concept phase, 401
阶段门控，400
stage gating, 400
功能和资产，402
features and assets, 402
长度，403
length of, 403
beta/第一个版本里程碑，406
beta/first release milestone, 406
商业发布，406
commercial release, 406
游戏进程
game progression
二次进展，341
secondary progression, 341
核心循环，213
core loops, 213
设计，179
designing, 179
进展和功率曲线
progression and power curves
cost/benefit definitions, 320–323
线性曲线，323
linear curves, 323
NAP（近算术级数）曲线，331
NAP (near-arithmetic progression) curves, 331
piecewise linear curves, 329–331
多项式曲线，324
polynomial curves, 324
游戏原型设计，184 – 185，263 – 264。另请参阅游戏测试
game prototyping, 184–185, 263–264. See also playtesting
模拟原型，387
analog prototypes, 387
answering questions with, 388–389
数字原型，387
digital prototypes, 387
入门，388
getting started with, 388
intended audience for, 389–390
保持分离，387
keeping separate, 387
快速移动，390
moving fast, 390
游戏结构
game structure
architectural and thematic elements, 111–112
定义，94
definition of, 94
功能方面，102
functional aspects, 102
功能元素作为机器，103
functional elements as machines, 103
internal model of reality, 103–106
opposition and conflict, 108–109
玩家的心理模型，107
player’s mental model, 107
possibilities for play, 102–103
游戏机制，101
game mechanics, 101
重复博弈，102
repeated games, 102
结构件
structural parts
游戏机制，101
game mechanics, 101
重复博弈，102
repeated games, 102
游戏系统，253。另请参阅文档
game systems, 253. See also documentation
战斗系统，256
combat systems, 256
建筑系统，257
construction systems, 257
游戏+玩家系统，122
game+player system, 122
技能和技术系统，257
skill and technological systems, 257
社会和政治制度，257
social and political systems, 257
设计工具，260
tools for designing, 260
rapid prototyping tools, 260–261
电子表格, 261
spreadsheets, 261
博弈论与游戏设计理论，119
game theory versus game design theory, 119
游戏类型
game types
比赛，91
agon games, 91
alea游戏，91
alea games, 91
ilinx 游戏，91
ilinx games, 91
卢杜斯-佩迪亚频谱，91
ludus-paidia spectrum, 91
模仿游戏，91
mimicry games, 91
游戏世界
game world
概念文件，210
concept document, 210
设计，179
designing, 179
游戏介导的社交互动，144
game-mediated social interaction, 144
gameplay loops, 235–236. See also interactive loops
ecological imbalances, 250–251
货币，243
currencies, 243
发动机经济，243
economies with engines, 243
unfolding complexity in, 242–243
游戏模型循环，225
game’s model loop, 225
游戏系统（Teknibas 等人），33
Gaming the System (Teknibas et al.), 33
高斯分布，306
Gaussian distribution, 306
盖尔曼·默里41岁
Gell-Mann, Murray, 41
通用系统（Bertalanffy），31
General Systems (Bertalanffy), 31
一般系统理论，33
general systems theory, 33
generic, modular behaviors, 277–278
类型，232
genre(s), 232
地心宇宙模型，28
geocentric model of universe, 28
地日中心宇宙模型，28
geo-heliocentric model of universe, 28
胶子场，42
gluon field, 42
围棋，84 – 86，98，130，142 – 143
目标
goals
定义，258
defining, 258
emotional interactivity, 150–151
游戏测试，392
playtesting, 392
约翰·沃尔夫冈·冯·歌德，30 岁
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 30
Google 文档，261
Google Docs, 261
格林斯潘，艾伦，74岁
Greenspan, Alan, 74
灰白的，147
The Grizzled, 147
分组, 145
grouping, 145
吉他英雄, 196
Guitar Hero, 196
赫
H
栖息地, 342
Habitat, 342
哈雷，埃德蒙，29岁
Halley, Edmund, 29
heliocentric model of solar system, 28–29
历史
history
霍布斯，托马斯，38岁
Hobbes, Thomas, 38
体内平衡，82
homeostasis, 82
游戏人（赫伊津哈），90
Homo Ludens (Huizinga), 90
荣耀战魂188
For Honor, 188
钩子，131
hooks, 131
豪，切尔西，157
Howe, Chelsea, 157
约翰·胡伊津加，90岁
Huizinga, Johan, 90
氢原子，39
hydrogen atoms, 39
假设驱动分析，17
hypothesis-driven analysis, 17
我
I
iconography for loop components, 223–224
构思，188。另请参阅蓝天设计
ideation, 188. See also blue-sky design
身份
identity
闲置游戏，198
idle games, 198
沉浸式创意动机，201
immersion-creativity motivations, 201
个人需求与团队需求之间的平衡，363
individuals’ needs, balancing with team needs, 363
information distortion, sample size and, 301–302
即时目标，110
instant goals, 110
综合水平，42
integrative levels, 42
有意选择，127
intentional choices, 127
交互循环，137 – 138，225 – 226。另请参阅游戏循环
interactive loops, 137–138, 225–226. See also gameplay loops
action/feedback interactivity, 138–141
即时游戏玩法，141
moment-to-moment gameplay, 141
现在时动作，139
present-tense action, 139
反射性注意力，139
reflexive attention, 139
stress and reward of fast action, 139–141
cognitive interactivity, 141–143
核心循环，127、156 – 157、226 – 227
core loops, 127, 156–157, 226–227
cultural interactivity, 152–153
emotional interactivity, 147–152
挑战，151
challenges of, 151
上下文，150
context, 150
游戏介导的社交互动，144
game-mediated social interaction, 144
techniques for encouraging, 144–146
narrative and interactive engagement, 158–159
互动性，121
interactivity, 121
行为消退，130
behavior extinction, 130
game behaviors and feedback, 125–126
有意选择，127
intentional choices, 127
player behaviors and cognitive load, 125–126, 159
详细设计（概念文件），213
detailed design (concept document), 213
趣味，163
fun, 163
特征，164
characteristics of, 164
“finding the fun,” 174–175, 386
negative affect in gameplay, 166–167
action/feedback interactivity, 138–141
cognitive interactivity, 141–143
cultural interactivity, 152–153
设计师循环，128
designer’s loop, 128
emotional interactivity, 147–152
narrative and interactive engagement, 158–159
内部状态, 124
internal state, 124
心智模型
mental models
整体体验，129
whole experience, 129
internal model of reality, 103–106
Dwarf Fortress example, 105–106
内生意义，104
endogenous meaning, 104
不及物动词平衡，316
intransitive balance, 316
发明家，174
inventors, 174
阶段门控，400
stage gating, 400
J
J
史蒂夫·乔布斯190
Jobs, Steve, 190
计算机游戏设计杂志，118
Journal of Computer Game Design, 118
乔伊斯·詹姆斯（Joyce, James）41 岁
Joyce, James, 41
初级游戏设计师，368
junior game designers, 368
钾
K
关键绩效指标 (KPI), 349
key performance indicators (KPIs), 349
Knights of the Old Republic, 116, 147–148
科勒，沃尔夫冈，30岁
Kohler, Wolfgang, 30
KPI（关键绩效指标），349
KPIs (key performance indicators), 349
水晶之夜，152
Kristallnacht, 152
库恩，托马斯，17岁
Kuhn, Thomas, 17
大号
L
LAMP 程序员，370
LAMP programmers, 370
刘德蒙35岁
Lau, Edmund, 35
“传统”游戏，101
“legacy” games, 101
塞尔达传说, 256
Legend of Zelda, 256
调平跑步机，260
leveling treadmill, 260
生命周期价值 (LTV)，352
lifetime value (LTV), 352
限时定价，211
limited-play pricing, 211
线性曲线，323
linear curves, 323
线性插值，329
linear interpolation, 329
相关事件、概率和305
linked events, probability and, 305
当地行动，277
local action, 277
本地化，212
localization, 212
长期认知互动，141
long-term cognitive interactivity, 141
长期目标，111
long-term goals, 111
balancing loops, 61–62, 220–221
定义
defining
目标，258
goals, 258
linking player experience and system design, 259–260
在游戏设计中，221
in game design, 221
游戏系统，253
game systems, 253
战斗系统，256
combat systems, 256
建筑系统，257
construction systems, 257
技能和技术系统，257
skill and technological systems, 257
社会和政治制度，257
social and political systems, 257
游戏模型循环，225
game’s model loop, 225
interactive loops, 137–138, 225–226
action/feedback interactivity, 138–141
cognitive interactivity, 141–143
核心循环，127，212 – 213，226 – 231
core loops, 127, 212–213, 226–231
cultural interactivity, 152–153
emotional interactivity, 147–152
玩家的心理循环，225
player’s mental loop, 225
questions to consider, 264–265
系统循环，180
systemic loops, 180
系统设计，220
systems design, 220
unintended consequences loops, 70–71
Lostgarden 博客，114
Lostgarden blog, 114
Lotka–Volterra equations, 65–66
LTV（终身价值），352
LTV (lifetime value), 352
米
M
Machinations, 223–224, 260–261
机器
machines
功能性游戏元素，103
functional game elements as, 103
魔法阵，90
magic circle, 90
主要系统（详细设计文档），213
main systems (detailed design document), 213
人、游戏和游戏（卡洛瓦），90
Man, Play, and Games (Callois), 90
曼，特伦斯，177
Mann, Terrence, 177
边际效用，255
marginal utility, 255
Marvel War of Heroes, 230, 239–240
马斯洛，亚伯拉罕，149
Maslow, Abraham, 149
马斯洛需求层次理论，149
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, 149
大型多人在线游戏。参见MMO（大型多人在线游戏）
massively multiplayer online games. See MMOs (massively multiplayer online games)
掌握成就动机，201
mastery-achievement motivations, 201
增田贵彦14岁
Masuda, Takahiko, 14
mathematical game balancing, 303–304
数学建模
mathematical modeling
versus systemic modeling, 66–67
MAU (monthly active users), 351–352
麦格尼格尔，简，92岁
McGonigal, Jane, 92
MDA (Mechanics-Dynamics-Aesthetics) framework, 92–93
梅多斯，唐内拉，32岁
Meadows, Donella, 32
平均值306
mean, 306
内生意义，104
endogenous meaning, 104
力学
mechanics
MDA (Mechanics-Dynamics-Aesthetics) framework, 92–93
Mechanics-Dynamics-Aesthetics (MDA) framework, 92–93
中位数，306
median, 306
迈耶，席德，92岁
Meier, Sid, 92
心智模型，107
mental models, 107
参与并保持参与，134
becoming and staying engaged, 134
定义，134
definition of, 134
神经化学参与，134
neurochemical engagement, 134
玩家的心理循环，225
player’s mental loop, 225
元认知，14
metacognition, 14
Microsoft Excel，261
Microsoft Excel, 261
里程碑
milestones
beta/第一个版本里程碑，406
beta/first release milestone, 406
军事训练，传递平衡，313
military training, transitive balance in, 313
模仿游戏，91
mimicry games, 91
我的世界，117
Minecraft, 117
minimum viable product (MVP), 400–401
误导性反馈，283
misleading feedback, 283
MMO（大型多人在线游戏），95
MMOs (massively multiplayer online games), 95
定义，198
definition of, 198
faucet/drain economies in, 55–57
游戏介导的社交互动，144
game-mediated social interaction, 144
模式，306
mode, 306
造型
modeling
史蒂芬·莫伦科普夫34 岁
Mollenkopf, Stephen, 34
即时游戏玩法，141
moment-to-moment gameplay, 141
货币化，353
monetization, 353
垄断，61，101-102，208-209
Monopoly, 61, 101–102, 208–209
增压发动机，237
boosting engines, 237
加强循环，221
reinforcing loops in, 221
代币入库，99
tokens in, 99
monthly active users (MAU), 351–352
纪念碑谷, 100
Monument Valley, 100
晨星，芯片，342
Morningstar, Chip, 342
形态学，30
morphology, 30
MVP（最小可行产品），402
MVP (minimum viable product), 402
否
N
名称-值对，270
name-value pairs, 270
NAP（近算术级数）曲线，331
NAP (near-arithmetic progression) curves, 331
设计，179
designing, 179
详细设计（概念文件），213
detailed design (concept document), 213
interactive engagement, 158–159
nautical game example, 275–276
属性，275
attributes, 275
detail design process, 275–276
近算术级数（NAP）曲线，331
near-arithmetic progression (NAP) curves, 331
negative affect in gameplay, 166–167
negative feedback loops, 60–62
理查德·内斯比特，14岁
Nesbitt, Richard, 14
neurochemical engagement, 135–137
神经质，202
neuroticism, 202
艾萨克·牛顿16 岁
Newton, Isaac, 16
无人深空，117
No Man’s Sky, 117
无意义的反馈，283
nonsensical feedback, 283
去甲肾上腺素，136
norepinephrine, 136
正态分布，306
normal distribution, 306
规范化，272
normalization, 272
哦
O
目标（详细设计文档），213
objectives (detailed design document), 213
客观主义，153
Objectivism, 153
游戏测试观察，397
observation of playtests, 397
“一个问题”，第196页
“The One Question,” 196
合一，47
oneness, 47
开放经验，202
openness to experience, 202
OpenOffice，261
OpenOffice, 261
organization, levels of, 81–82
组织结构图，366
organization charts, 366
催产素，136
oxytocin, 136
磷
P
损益责任，365
P&L responsibility, 365
吃豆人, 140
Pac-Man, 140
对，名称-值，270
pairs, name-value, 270
多边形寓言279
Parable of the Polygons, 279
范式转变，17
paradigm shifts, 17
副交感神经系统，230
parasympathetic nervous system, 230
parts of games, 267–268. See also loops
first-order attributes, 271–272
second-order attributes, 271–272
third-order attributes, 271–272
decoupling cost from value, 336–338
generic, modular behaviors, 277–278
当地行动，277
local action, 277
文档
documentation for
游戏机制，101
game mechanics, 101
内部状态，270
internal state of, 270
航海游戏示例
nautical game example
属性，275
attributes, 275
detail design process, 275–276
需要考虑的问题，291
questions to consider, 291
重复博弈，102
repeated games, 102
简单/原子部分，268
simple/atomic parts, 268
系统部分
parts of systems
行为，53
behaviors, 53
流动之间，54
flow between, 54
资源，54
resources, 54
来源，54
sources, 54
A Pattern Language (Alexander), 32, 46–47
预处理信息的有效载荷，158
payload of pre-processed information, 158
人格特质，202
personality traits, 202
游戏制作阶段
phases of game production
概念，401
concept, 401
功能和资产，402
features and assets, 402
长度，403
length of, 403
beta/第一个版本里程碑，406
beta/first release milestone, 406
商业发布，406
commercial release, 406
现象学思维，15
phenomenological thinking, 15
生理需求（马斯洛层次理论），149
physiological needs (Maslow’s hierarchy), 149
piecewise linear curves, 329–331
投球比赛，376
pitching games, 376
行动呼吁384
call to action, 384
准备
preparation
观众识别，378
audience identification, 378
knowing your material, 378–379
皮克斯，184
Pixar, 184
平台游戏，198
platformer games, 198
platforms, defining in concept document, 211–212
基于玩家的平衡，298
player-based balancing, 298
玩家。另请参阅游戏测试
players. See also playtesting
机构，100
agency, 100
behaviors and cognitive load, 125–126, 159
choosing for playtesting, 392–393
直觉，298
intuition, 298
心理循环，225
mental loops, 225
as part of larger system, 97–98
人格特质，202
personality traits, 202
球员经纪，100
player agency, 100
玩家行为数据
player behavior data
acquisition and first experience, 350–351
社区, 354
community, 354
玩家期望，281
player expectations, 281
玩家体验，206
player experience, 206
linking with system design, 259–260
球员信息，收集，349
player information, collecting, 349
基于玩家的平衡，298
player-based balancing, 298
player-to-player economies, 244–245
环境背景，203
environmental context, 203
作为反对的类型，109
as type of opposition, 109
player-to-player economies, 244–245
playtesting, 184–185. See also prototyping
整理，397
finishing, 397
目标392
goals of, 392
重要性，391
importance of, 391
基于玩家的平衡，298
player-based balancing, 298
准备，393
preparation, 393
最终检查，396
final checks, 396
何时测试，391
when to test, 391
庞加莱，亨利，46 岁
Poincaré, Henri, 46
扑克, 95
Poker, 95
政治制度，257
political systems, 257
多项式曲线，324
polynomial curves, 324
门户，197
Portal, 197
positive feedback loops, 60–62
possibilities for play, 102–103
验尸，405
postmortems, 405
功率曲线。查看进展和功率曲线
power curves. See progression and power curves
predator-prey equations, 65–66
溢价定价，210
premium pricing, 210
准备
preparation
投球比赛
for pitching games
观众识别，378
audience identification, 378
knowing your material, 378–379
用于游戏测试，393
for playtesting, 393
最终检查，396
final checks, 396
preproduction phase (game production), 401–402
功能和资产，402
features and assets, 402
长度，403
length of, 403
presentations (pitches), 382–384
现在时动作，139
present-tense action, 139
声望循环，247
prestige loops, 247
基本情绪，147
primary emotions, 147
《数学原理》（牛顿），29
Principia Mathematica (Newton), 29
可能性
probability
改变概率，307
changing probabilities, 307
定义，304
definition of, 304
likely occurence of unlikely events, 310–311
probability distributions, 305–307
独立事件和关联事件305
separate and linked events, 305
游戏设计流程
process of game design
系统循环，180
systemic loops, 180
thematic architecture of, 178–180
产品说明，206
product descriptions, 206
游戏世界小说，210
game world fiction, 210
玩家体验，206
player experience, 206
范围，212
scope, 212
technology, tools, and platforms, 211–212
visual and audio style, 209–210
产品开发
product development
开发团队
development teams
游戏设计师，368
game designers, 368
组织结构图，366
organization chart, 366
其他团队成员，372
other team members, 372
QA (quality assurance), 370–371
用户界面/用户体验，369
UI/UX, 369
top-priority items for, 359–360
生产，399
production, 399
概念阶段，401
concept phase, 401
阶段门控，400
stage gating, 400
功能和资产，402
features and assets, 402
长度，403
length of, 403
beta/第一个版本里程碑，406
beta/first release milestone, 406
商业发布，406
commercial release, 406
生产链，222
production chains, 222
production phase (game production), 403–404
beta/第一个版本里程碑，406
beta/first release milestone, 406
商业发布，406
commercial release, 406
进展
progression
二次进展，341
secondary progression, 341
核心循环，213
core loops, 213
设计，179
designing, 179
进展和功率曲线
progression and power curves
cost/benefit definitions, 320–323
线性曲线，323
linear curves, 323
NAP（近算术级数）曲线，331
NAP (near-arithmetic progression) curves, 331
piecewise linear curves, 329–331
多项式曲线，324
polynomial curves, 324
进展和功率曲线，320
progression and power curves, 320
cost/benefit definitions, 320–323
线性曲线，323
linear curves, 323
NAP（近算术级数）曲线，331
NAP (near-arithmetic progression) curves, 331
piecewise linear curves, 329–331
多项式曲线，324
polynomial curves, 324
原型设计，184 – 185，263 – 264。另请参阅游戏测试
prototyping, 184–185, 263–264. See also playtesting
模拟原型，387
analog prototypes, 387
answering questions with, 388–389
数字原型，387
digital prototypes, 387
入门，388
getting started with, 388
intended audience for, 389–390
保持分离，387
keeping separate, 387
快速移动，390
moving fast, 390
心理参与，137
psychological engagement, 137
问
Q
QA (quality assurance), 370–371
高通，34岁
Qualcomm, 34
quality assurance (QA), 370–371
“quality without a name,” 47, 60, 96
Quantic Foundry
Quantic Foundry
cognitive threshold diagram, 160–161
R
R
rabbits, introduction into Australia, 25–26
兰帕特，238
Rampart, 238
随机测定，108
random determination, 108
随机性
randomness
creating uncertainty with, 106–107
随机测定，108
random determination, 108
范围，定义，306
range, definition of, 306
rapid prototyping tools, 260–261
reality, internal model of, 103–106
Dwarf Fortress example, 105–106
内生意义，104
endogenous meaning, 104
狂神之境, 145
Realm of the Mad God, 145
Realm vs. Realm combat, 249–250, 313
反射性注意力，139
reflexive attention, 139
重复博弈，102
repeated games, 102
抵抗, 99
The Resistance, 99
附属资源，322
subsidiary resources, 322
reward of fast action, 139–141
雷诺兹，克雷格，36岁
Reynolds, Craig, 36
节奏游戏，198
rhythm games, 198
摇滚乐队, 196
Rock Band, 196
Rock-Paper-Scissors, 102, 311–313
石头剪刀布蜥蜴史波克，312
Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock, 312
roguelike 游戏，199
roguelike games, 199
角色扮演游戏。参见RPG（角色扮演游戏）
role-playing games. See RPGs (role-playing games)
角色
roles
互补作用，146
complementary roles, 146
团队角色, 364
team roles, 364
开发团队组织结构图，366
development team organization chart, 366
游戏设计师，368
game designers, 368
其他团队角色，372
other team roles, 372
QA (quality assurance), 370–371
用户界面/用户体验，369
UI/UX, 369
浪漫主义哲学家，30
Romantic philosophers, 30
罗梅罗，布伦达，152
Romero, Brenda, 152
Rovio，172
Rovio, 172
RPG（角色扮演游戏），252
RPGs (role-playing games), 252
定义，199
definition of, 199
经验值, 62
experience points in, 62
规则
rules
as type of opposition, 108–109
符文场景, 325
RuneScape, 325
RvR（领域与领域的战斗），313
RvR (Realm vs. Realm combat), 313
年代
S
安全（马斯洛需求层次理论），149
safety (Maslow’s hierarchy of needs), 149
萨伦·凯蒂（92岁）
Salen, Katie, 92
饱腹感，255
satiation, 255
SBF（结构-行为-功能）框架，94
SBF (Structure-Behavior-Function) framework, 94
时间表，可变，244
schedules, variable, 244
schools of fish, shape of, 78–79
范围
scope
在概念文件中定义，212
defining in concept document, 212
范围蔓延，404
scope creep, 404
范围蔓延，404
scope creep, 404
scripts for playtesting, writing, 393–394
二次进展，341
secondary progression, 341
second-order attributes, 271–272
二阶设计，104
second-order design, 104
安全（马斯洛需求层次理论），149
security (Maslow’s hierarchy of needs), 149
自我实现（马斯洛需求层次理论），149
self-actualization (Maslow’s hierarchy of needs), 149
卖点，独特，204
selling points, unique, 204
语义距离，125
semantic distance, 125
塞尼特，118
Senet, 118
独立事件、概率和305
separate events, probability and, 305
血清素，135
serotonin, 135
shape of schools of fish, 78–79
短期认知互动，141
short-term cognitive interactivity, 141
短期目标，110
short-term goals, 110
席德·梅尔的海盗，116
Sid Meier’s Pirates, 116
西伯特·霍斯特，19岁
Siebert, Horst, 19
sigmoid (logistic) curves, 327–328
西姆金，马文，257
Simkin, Marvin, 257
简单资源，222
simple resources, 222
简单/原子部件，268。另请参阅游戏部件
simple/atomic parts, 268. See also game parts
模拟人生, 209
The Sims, 209
模拟游戏，199
simulation games, 199
单人游戏，97
single-player games, 97
团队规模，372
size of teams, 372
技能和成就（马斯洛需求层次理论），149
skill and attainment (Maslow’s hierarchy of needs), 149
技能和技术系统，257
skill and technological systems, 257
Smuts, Jan Christian, 22, 30, 60
社会目标，111
social goals, 111
游戏介导的社交互动，144
game-mediated social interaction, 144
techniques for encouraging, 144–146
社会需求（马斯洛层次理论），149
social needs (Maslow’s hierarchy), 149
社会互惠，146
social reciprocity, 146
社会指涉，145
social referents, 145
社会系统，257
social systems, 257
游戏空间，设计，180
space for play, designing, 180
体育比赛，199
sports games, 199
电子表格文档, 261 , 268 – 269 , 289 – 291
spreadsheet documentation, 261, 268–269, 289–291
虚假相关性，21
spurious correlations, 21
阶段门控，400
stage gating, 400
星界, 256
Star Realms, 256
状态
state
语句
statements
concept statement, 195–196, 381–382
x 语句，205
x-statements, 205
静态发动机，236
static engines, 236
蒸汽机鸟：生存, 114
Steambirds: Survival, 114
stock market crash of 1929, 73–74
讲故事的人，173
storytellers, 173
优势、了解、173
strengths, knowing, 173
stress of fast action, 139–141
结构耦合, 82
structural coupling, 82
结构件
structural parts
游戏机制，101
game mechanics, 101
重复博弈，102
repeated games, 102
結構（遊戲）
structure (game)
architectural and thematic elements, 111–112
定义，94
definition of, 94
功能方面，102
functional aspects, 102
功能元素作为机器，103
functional elements as machines, 103
internal model of reality, 103–106
opposition and conflict, 108–109
玩家的心理模型，107
player’s mental model, 107
possibilities for play, 102–103
游戏机制，101
game mechanics, 101
重复博弈，102
repeated games, 102
结构件
structural parts
游戏机制，101
game mechanics, 101
重复博弈，102
repeated games, 102
结构-行为-功能（SBF）框架，94
Structure-Behavior-Function (SBF) framework, 94
风格指南，210
style guides, 210
主观轮廓，22
subjective contour, 22
附属资源，322
subsidiary resources, 322
数独, 141
Sudoku, 141
Sumitomo Chemical Plant, 34–35
超级食肉男孩, 297
Super Meat Boy, 297
供应与需求，245
supply and demand, 245
对称分布，307
symmetrical distribution, 307
交感神经系统，230
sympathetic nervous system, 230
synergy, metastability and, 42–45
系统设计文档, 262
system design documents, 262
系统技术设计文档, 263
system technical design documents, 263
系统, 28
systema, 28
systemic depth and elegance, 83–86
系统游戏设计师。参见游戏设计师
systemic game designers. See game designers
系统循环，180
systemic loops, 180
ecological imbalances, 250–251
货币，243
currencies, 243
发动机经济，243
economies with engines, 243
unfolding complexity in, 242–243
系统建模
systemic modeling
systemic organization of games, 96–97
architectural and thematic elements, 111–117
player as part of larger system, 97–98
systemic organization of games, 96–97
player as part of larger system, 97–98
结构件
structural parts
游戏机制，101
game mechanics, 101
重复博弈，102
repeated games, 102
系统思维。参见系统思维
systemic thinking. See systems thinking
系统
systems
适应性，82
adaptability, 82
complicated versus complex, 58–60
平衡，114
balancing, 114
战斗系统，256
combat systems, 256
建筑系统，257
construction systems, 257
技能和技术系统，257
skill and technological systems, 257
社会和政治制度，257
social and political systems, 257
unintended consequences loops, 70–71
元认知，14
metacognition, 14
部分
parts of
行为，53
behaviors, 53
流动之间，54
flow between, 54
资源，54
resources, 54
来源，54
sources, 54
坚持，82
persistence, 82
结构耦合, 82
structural coupling, 82
systemic depth and elegance, 83–86
重要性，33
importance of, 33
and interconnected world, 34–36
metastability and synergy, 42–45
Theseus’ ship paradox, 38–39, 45–46
整体，86
wholes, 86
系统设计，220。另请参阅循环
systems design, 220. See also loops
重要性，33
importance of, 33
and interconnected world, 34–36
metastability and synergy, 42–45
Theseus’ ship paradox, 38–39, 45–46
The Systems View of Life (Capra), 32–33
电视
T
桌面游戏，176
tabletop games, 176
物理学之道（卡普拉），32
The Tao of Physics (Capra), 32
环境背景，203
environmental context, 203
团队合作，356
teamwork, 356
平衡个人需求，363
balancing with needs of individuals, 363
开发团队
development teams
游戏设计师，368
game designers, 368
组织结构图，366
organization chart, 366
其他团队成员，372
other team members, 372
QA (quality assurance), 370–371
用户界面/用户体验，369
UI/UX, 369
practices of successful teams, 356–357, 360–361
团队规模，372
team size, 372
技术
technology
defining in concept document, 211–212
技术系统，257
technological systems, 257
神庙逃亡, 140
Temple Run, 140
泰拉瑞亚，116
Terraria, 116
测试。参见游戏测试
testing. See playtesting
thematic architecture, 178–180
thematic game elements, 111–112
内容和系统，112
content and systems, 112
平衡，114
balancing, 114
概念文件，214
concept document, 214
thematic architecture, 178–180
thematic game elements, 111–112
Theseus’ ship paradox, 38–39, 45–46
“事物性”
“thingness”
在游戏测试中大声思考，398
thinking aloud in playtesting, 398
系统思维（Meadows），32
Thinking in Systems (Meadows), 32
“The Third Thing” (Lawrence), 44, 60, 96
third-order attributes, 271–272
This War of Mine, 147, 208–209
思维过程
thought processes
元认知，14
metacognition, 14
现象学思维，15
phenomenological thinking, 15
systems thinking, 23–27, 182–184
重要性，33
importance of, 33
and interconnected world, 34–36
metastability and synergy, 42–45
Theseus’ ship paradox, 38–39, 45–46
井字游戏, 107
Tic-Tac-Toe, 107
时间
time
balancing progression with, 340–341
time-scale view of interactive loops, 155–159
narrative and interactive engagement, 158–159
文档中的时间戳, 291
timestamps in documentation, 291
The Timeless Way of Building (Alexander), 32, 47
time-scale view of interactive loops, 155–159
narrative and interactive engagement, 158–159
文档中的时间戳, 291
timestamps in documentation, 291
反馈时机，282
timing of feedback, 282
标题（概念文件），195
title (concept document), 195
代币，98 – 99，180 – 181，221 – 222
tokens, 98–99, 180–181, 221–222
工具，260
tools, 260
defining in concept document, 211–212
rapid prototyping tools, 260–261
电子表格, 261
spreadsheets, 261
托格，252
Torg, 252
总进展率，324
total progression ratio, 324
汤森，迈克尔，325
Townsend, Michael, 325
玩具制造商，174
toymakers, 174
保罗·托祖尔356
Tozour, Paul, 356
贸易经济体，244
trading economies, 244
火车, 152 – 153 , 162 – 163 , 167
传递平衡
transitive balance
冷战热斗, 90
Twilight Struggle, 90
第谷·布拉赫，28岁
Tycho Brahe, 28
乌
U
UI（用户界面）团队角色，369
UI (user interface) team role, 369
unintended consequences loops, 70–71
unique selling points (USPs), 204–205
unlikely events, likely occurence of, 310–311
向上, 184
Up, 184
updating documentation, 288–289
美国军事训练，传递平衡，313
U.S. military training, transitive balance in, 313
用户交互 (UX) 团队角色, 369
user interactions (UX) team role, 369
用户界面 (UI) 团队角色, 369
user interface (UI) team role, 369
USPs (unique selling points), 204–205
UX（用户交互）团队角色，369
UX (user interactions) team role, 369
五
V
价数，148
valence, 148
值
values
assigning to attributes, 335–336
VandenBerghe，Jason，178
VandenBerghe, Jason, 178
可变时间表，244
variable schedules, 244
加压素，136
vasopressin, 136
游戏的垂直切片，389
vertical slice of game, 389
活力，134
vigor, 134
西
W
思考方式。参见思维过程
ways of thinking. See thought processes
弱点，努力，173
weaknesses, working to, 173
decoupling cost from value, 336–338
weight coefficients, assigning to attributes, 334–335
韦特海默，马克斯，30岁
Wertheimer, Max, 30
整个体验。参见游戏概念
whole experience. See game concept
整体，86
wholes, 86
维纳，诺伯特，31岁
Wiener, Norbert, 31
“绿野仙踪”协议，398
“Wizard of Oz” protocol, 398
wolves, reintroduction into Yellowstone National Park, 26–27
工作标题（概念文件），195
working title (concept document), 195
世界（游戏）
world (game)
概念文件，210
concept document, 210
设计，179
designing, 179
魔兽世界，130，249-250，314
World of Warcraft, 130, 249–250, 314
NAP（近算术级数）曲线，331
NAP (near-arithmetic progression) curves, 331
库存限制，256
stock limitations in, 256
writing scripts for playtesting, 393–394
吴星，312
Wu Xing, 312
十
X
XP (experience points), 62, 252
x 语句，205
x-statements, 205
是
Y
Yellowstone National Park, reintroduction of wolves into, 26–27
是
Z
埃里克·齐默尔曼（Eric Zimmerman），92岁
Zimmerman, Eric, 92
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